I am having a terrible time finishing anything. Do post menopausal women find their ability to focus is like a dandelion in the wind?
I am having a terrible time finishing anything. Do post menopausal women find their ability to focus is like a dandelion in the wind?
yup
Yes – it sucks!
Omg it’s horrendous
Yep! Good times…
It’s bad but I think device use makes it worse.
Peri menopausal women do too! lol
@Jeri Thank goodness because it’s been driving me batty. I thought it was just my brain not wanting me to enjoy my reading anymore.
@Jeri yup
YES!!!!!
YES!!!!!
Yes.
Wait. What?! It’s going to get worse???? Well crap on a cracker.
YES!!
Oh yes! And your vagina dries up!
As my doctor so gently put it “there’s definitely some atrophy”
@Donelle LOL!
Yes!
Oh, I’m not even there yet and I can’t focus on shit.
But if you COULD focus, what would you looove to read? (Specifically ladies of our excellent vintage.)
You ladies make me glad to not be alone in this.
NOBODY TOLD ME ABOUT ALL THIS SHIT!! ??
Some days are better than others. Have a hard time focusing on TV shows & movies too. Not like me at all!! ☹️
@Stacey I don’t even watch them anymore. I used to love HGTV and sitcoms.
Does it go away after menopause?
The worst part for me was when I asked the doctor how long menopause would last & she said forever!! ? I cried for 30 mins in car. ?
Wow, just an hour ago I mentioned to a friend that I’ve been having such a hard time focusing on books lately!
The struggle is real!!!
Menopause has not been my friend.
Same. And I swear I got dumber when the surgeon yanked out my ovaries. Maybe that’s the source of our superpowers.
@Stacy could be. Although I still have mine and I’m still fogbound half the time.
Menopause was not my friend. Get your thyroid checked! I had hypothyroidism through menopause – medication really helped with that! I’m through it all now, yay!!
Me either. I thought I was alone.
@Betsy I’m on thyroid meds and haven’t noticed any difference.
@Julie nope, you’re not alone. #bitteristhenewmenopause
Yes. And throw in a sweltering hot flash for good measure.
Nope! I read the most books ever in my life last year, 81!
What was the question again…?! ?
I think a lot a menopausal women do!
I have never forgotten my phone so many times since treatments put me in menopause. I feel so distracted
I had a hysterectomy this past September, so I’m in “surgical menopause” I find it hard to concentrate on most anything ??
I don’t know about post menopausal, but as a peri menopausal, I have zero focus!!
OMG – yes.
I can still read up a storm. But don’t ask me to concentrate on anything else, lol. I thought it was adult onset ADD ?
I too find myself always getting distracted by everyth-
So it’s not just me…I’m struggling with every single book!
Yes and as for hot flashes. I am still waiting for them to stop – and i am going to be 69 in October!
@Eva noooo….!
@Lori sad but true. Hopefully I am an outlier!
Eva Gholami sadly, I don’t think so.
@Eva noooooo!!! I’m only 42, had my hysterectomy just before my 40th birthday. I can’t take that many more years of the flashes!
@Cyndi they do lessen but I am hardly ever cold!
@Eva I’m cold a lot but when the flash hits it hits!
@Cyndi they used to be like stepping into a furnace. Now it’s milder – like being in an over heated car. Don’t put me in charge of the thermostat!
A woman in the grocery line told me that she is 70 and she did get her brain back and her ability to sleep through the night and other stuff. So, don’t worry, this post-m state is not forever.
I haven’t read in ages despite wanting to. Can’t focus and my memory is beyond bad ?
I haven’t had trouble reading or concentrating-as long as it grabs my attention, but I forget what I’m saying frequently, or names. It’s happening at work, and it’s driving me crazy.
And I thought it was just me! Uugghhh. I do find magazines, especially a good trashy People, to help bridge my need to read with inability to focus. I’m on again, off again with ability to focus & connect with a book. I live by the post-it note at work or nothing would get done.
Yes.
Definitely.
Wait until you not only can’t focus but you don’t remember things. Like why you go into a room and what you went for. Other than the bathroom!!
Any good books on this whole subject that someone could recommend??
Believe it or not Suzanne Summer’s books helped me. Not Dr approved and not everyone will agree but it helped me with what to look for. Also talk to family and your girlfriends! That helped me alot to realize I’m not crazy! And bitching also helps!?
Tru dat! ??
I get it. Agreed, start books, don’t finish, monkey brain, you name it
Yep!
Yep. I am doing menopause without any hormone replacement, just using natural things, and I’m doing ok, but that is a common thing for menopausal women, for sure.
Might be some truth to that. I’m in early perimenopause and I find it hard to concentrate.
Yeah it sucks. I’m a teacher and I still call students by the wrong name 3/4 if the way thru the year! ?
@Cathy I’ve been teaching so long I’m calling them their parents’ names!
@Glenda ????
Yup
Post menopausal women get their focus back, at least I did. I wouldn’t go through perimenopause again for anything. I’d be on the road and pass my turn and realize it a mile down the road. It was really disconcerting. Now I have focus and no raging hormones to distract me. I didn’t find any books to help me, or doctors. But I did seek out advice from women older than myself, who assured me that the real me would come back. That helped a lot. Find shorter books, magazines, etc. and try not to let the anxiety of it get too firm a grip on you. This too shall pass. <3
I never got my focus back. Its like i’m add
Yep. I feel like my brain is turning to mush.
Yes!!! But I didn’t realize that was maybe the cause of it.
I’m perimenopausal and take a low dose of hormones. Even so, I have the attention span of a gnat these days. I feel like I have AADD (adult attention deficit disorder).
@Courtney my ob wanted to put me back on birth control pills. She knows I feel like they make me crazy.
@Cyndi I was crazy without hormones. And the hot flashes/inability to regulate body temperature kept me from getting a decent night’s sleep.
@Courtney I don’t sleep either despite being on a high dose of sleeping pills.
@Cyndi I take 1 mg of estradiol. It’s been a sanity saver.
I had a hysterectomy in November of 2016 and I can’t say that my ability to concentrate has diminished, BUT I will write this; if a book begins to make me feel bored or I come to the conclusion that it just is not really worth my time, I go to the last three chapters and read them and call it done. I feel like I am now at the age that my time really matters and since I read only at night after work and after my shower I really feel that I want my time to matter!
yes & it sucks!
Premenopausal ?♀️?♀️ can’t focus on ANYTHING!
Yes!!!! I was just complaining about my ADD. I have the attention span of a flea
This book helped me a lot. https://books.google.com/books/about/Moody_Bitches.html?id=DozaCwAAQBAJ
@Kim I think my gf swore by this one.
I can still focus, but we live in a 24 hour world today with a million “quick” distractions with the advent of social media, etc. I think technology is doing it to us. And…we are letting it. ?♀️☹️
Started the moment I became perimenopausal – couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t sleep (those are just my top 2 symptoms). My doctor said, “there’s no part of the body that menopause doesn’t affect.”
I’m about 17 years postmenopausal. I think I had an issue early on, but now I can read for hours with no problem.