It Might Not Be Depression. It Might Be Perimenopause.

You have never been an anxious person. You were the one who handled things. And now your heart races in a meeting for no reason you can name, and last month you had what you later understood was a panic attack, at forty-three, having never had one in your life. Or it is not anxiety. It is that you snapped at someone you love over something that did not warrant it, and the size of your own reaction frightened you. It is a flatness you cannot explain, because nothing has actually gone wrong. Perhaps you saw a doctor and were given an antidepressant. Perhaps it helped somewhat, or not much, or you never took it because the explanation did not fit. Here is what may not have been discussed: the years leading up to menopause are recognized in the clinical literature as a window (...)

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