As the founder of a company that champions women’s empowerment and neurodiversity via an intersectional lens, I can’t ignore the sheer impact of hormones.
My challenges became harder to manage when I became a mother and suffered from postnatal depression and anxiety while juggling a career.
While seeking answers to my diagnosis, my conversations with many other neurodivergent women helped me feel seen, so I created a campaign to document these conversations.
How the Neurodiverse Community Feel about Hormonal Impact
When I speak to neurodivergent women, the air in the room changes when we get to the slide I make on hormonal impact.
A sigh of relief, a tear shed from the release from what we’ve had to bottle up about how hormonal changes wreaked havoc in our lives, which lead to a spike in diagnoses of ADHD and autism in women in their late 30s through to 50s and 60s (3200% increase in women took online ADHD tests in 2021, from 2019).
In my honest opinion, many neurodivergent women have been able to cope until they couldn’t – when large hormonal changes occur in their lives, either through pregnancy, childbirth, increased responsibilities that brings on more stress, and the menopause – a natural progression in a woman’s life, but one that is so fraught with complexities because society as a whole is still catching up with what women need.
As Spain passed the law enabling women to take paid menstrual leave up to 3 times a month, we could all do our parts to understand what we can do individually and within workplaces.
For some, the pain that comes from menstruating can feel like a heart attack.
I haven’t encountered any biochemical research linking ADHD and PMDD, so the exact mechanisms at play are still a huge question mark.
What this means is that neurodivergent women are then left to figure it out on their own, with many turning to alternative medical providers, naturopaths, and hormone specialists privately.
In this video, I talk about the implications of ADHD when intersecting with PMDD and menopause, and how this impacts cognitive function.
Every hormonal transition in our lives can cause challenges, from puberty to menopause.
To see the full article on PMDD and my contributions on this around neurodiversity and the workplace, click here.
Support and Resources for Neurodivergent Women
ADHD & Women: Tools to Thrive workshop recording
ADHD & Women: Tools to Thrive workbook, where I included coping strategies for hormonal changes from the neurodiverse community.
Invite me to speak or support your policies for neurodiverse women at work.
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