Perimenopause Doesn't Cause ADHD, It Unmasks It: Reclaim Your Brain with Dr. Jolene Brighten

Dr. Jolene Brighten (0:00)

I am magnificent at making my husband's appointments, my children's appointments. Like, our house runs like a well-oiled machine from the outside, but I don't know the last time I had a pap smear. I don't know the last time that, like, I actually had a breast exam. Like, this is why ADHD should be a public health crisis when we consider that women are losing about 10 years off their life and they're missing critical screening exams as well.

Dr. Stephanie Estima (0:26)

Hello, my friends. Welcome to another episode of BETTER! with Dr. Stephanie. It's me, your host, Dr. Stephanie Estima. Question for you. On your report card, were you ever told, so smart, but not living up to her potential? Or maybe your menstrual cycle has always been a gong show? Or maybe you are so hypervigilant that you always make sure that you are early and you have developed elaborate systems to keep you on time to make sure that you are not forgetting anything?

If so, this is going to be a very interesting episode for you to hear. We are talking about Neurodivergence and specifically ADHD in women.

Dr. Jolene Brighten (1:05)

I think the other thing we can think about with ADHD, you know, it gets characterized all the time as like, oh, you just must be quirky and you wear mismatched socks. And it's like these things that like seem so benign, but ADHD is not necessarily benign.

Dr. Stephanie Estima (1:20)

My guest is Dr. Jolene Brighten. She is an internationally recognized expert in hormones, women's health, and ADHD across the female lifespan. She's a board certified naturopathic endocrinologist, a nutrition scientist, a certified menopause specialist, a sex counselor, and she's widely known for translating complex hormonal science into clear, clinically relevant care for patients and the doctors who treat them.

Dr. Jolene Brighten (1:43)

We think that ADHD is like a little boy who can't sit still. She might have been the little girl whose report card said, she's really smart, but she talks too much. Instead of someone seeing that as a little girl who needs support and needs help, they called her someone who didn't know when to be quiet.

Dr. Stephanie Estima (1:57)

So we're talking today about ADHD, and you might find here why your body is changing, why the things that used to work in your 20s and 30s are no longer working. You're going to find actionable strategies along with supplementation and a nutrition list and exercise prescription. So please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Jolene Brighten.

Betty's sleep is not a recovery strategy. It is the recovery strategy. And if you are waking up at 3am, running hot or lying there with your brain doing its little highlight reel of everything that you forgot to do that day, this is your nervous system stuck in output mode because nothing in your evening told you that the day was over. Cortisol should be at its lowest point when you're trying to sleep. And for a lot of women in midlife, it really isn't. The rhythm is really off. The wind down signal never comes. This is where Peek's Vesper Blend is built for that exact window. It has ashwagandha to bring cortisol down, magnesium to support the nervous system into rest, reishi for deep recovery. It's the clinical case for an evening ritual in a single cup. I make it about 45 minutes or so before bed, and it becomes a signal that my body recognizes that, hey, we're done for the day. And then I head into my skincare routine, and that permission to stop performing and starting to calm down is not a small thing. If you want to redefine your evening ritual and feel like yourself the next day, you can get 10% off for life. Yes, that's for life at peaklife.com/better.

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Your nervous system will thank you. Your 3 a.m. wake up is not a guarantee, right? So let's give your nervous system something to work with. Okay, so we're going to do a special rapid fire edition here for my dear friend and colleague. So we're going to do, is this ADHD or not ADHD edition? Okay, so first rapid fire question for you. I can research for three hours the best cottage cheese recipes, but it takes me two days to respond to a voice note from my friend. ADHD or not ADHD?

Dr. Jolene Brighten (4:13)

My friends, that is ADHD, and specifically what that is, is where your attention flows. So ADHD is always called attention deficit. As it turns out, there is no deficit. It's just that we have a hard time regulating our attention. So cottage cheese in text message.