Thread: What are your questions about menopause, hormones, addiction and recovery?
I'm interviewing an expert this week--crowdsourcing questions and suggestions.
Hey all, I’m interviewing Dr. Kristen Schmidt, an addiction psychiatrist and researcher who focuses on the intersection of SUDs and hormones, about how perimenopause and menopause effects addiction and recovery, and I’m looking for your questions about hormones, menopause, drinking, addiction, and recovery. (Comments are open to free and paid subscribers this time, your questions will help shape this episode.)
This is our second conversation. The first conversation we had is here and available to listen now, where we discussed in general how hormones impact drinking, addiction, and recovery (did you know there’s a relapse day in our cycles???). It’s 90 minutes and it’s so good—this information was new to me after ten years researching addiction and changed my life.
There’s been nothing more transformative for my recovery, mental health, and overall stability than learning about hormones and, eventually, choosing to start hormone replacement therapy. HRT has, I believe, improved my ADHD symptoms, made me a happier, steadier human, and in many ways, saved my fucking life (I use an estradiol patch, micronized progesterone for days 16 to 27 of my cycle, and estrogen cream). It’s truly been a night-and-day difference, one that came after years of research, sorting through misinformation, and my own valid hesitations1.
As a timely aside, yesterday, the FDA just removed the black box warnings on these drugs—an enormous step forward for women’s health and, hopefully, the start of deeper understanding around how profoundly our hormones shape our quality of life.
Anyway, I’d love all of your help in shaping this conversation. If you’ve got a question, Kristen likely has an answer.
I also know it’s not the right choice for everyone, and there are many ways to support hormonal health outside of medication. I strongly disagree with the assertion that HRT is in conflict with real sobriety
Hi Holly! I’d like to know if perimenopause truly reveals previously masked ADHD in women or if perimenopause symptoms are just very similar to ADHD symptoms? Thank you for your work
What do you do about the issues of perimenopause/menopause if HRT is contraindicated? I had hormone sensitive breast cancer in my 20s so will never be able to take hormone replacement and have in fact been in chemical induced menopause for most of the last decade.