Come. Sit with me.
You’ve been told your hormones are “declining.” That this is simply a winding down, a dimmer switch slowly turning off the lights. That’s not what’s happening at all—and knowing the truth matters, because it explains so much of what you’re feeling.
Your body isn’t fading. It’s transforming. And transformation, as anyone who has lived through one knows, is rarely quiet.
What I Want You to Understand
In the pages ahead, I’ll walk you through:
The Hormonal Landscape
Why what's happening is less like a gentle decline and more like a storm. Your estrogen isn't simply dropping—it's swinging wildly, sometimes higher than it's ever been, sometimes crashing.
What Your Brain Is Doing
We now understand why hot flashes happen, down to the specific neurons involved. This isn't your imagination—there's a reason your internal thermostat has gone haywire.
Your Whole Body
Estrogen receptors exist in over 400 tissues throughout your body. Your heart, bones, brain, skin, eyes. This is why everything feels like it's changing at once—because it is.
The Emotional Journey
Identity, grief, and finding yourself during transformation. This isn't just physical—and the emotional weight deserves acknowledgment.
The Truth They Don’t Tell You
Here’s what most doctors still get wrong: during perimenopause, estradiol levels actually average 20-30% HIGHER than your premenopausal levels in many cyclesPrior JC. Perimenopause: The Complex Endocrinology of the Menopausal Transition. Endocrine Reviews. 1998;19(4):397-428.—punctuated by dramatic drops and spikes.
Think of it less as a dimmer switch slowly turning down, and more as a strobe light with increasingly erratic timing.
This is why you might feel more intensely premenstrual than ever. Why your moods swing harder. Why some days you feel almost normal and others you don’t recognize yourself. The chaos isn’t in your head. It’s in your biology.
Understanding this won’t make the symptoms disappear. But knowing what’s actually happening—and why—gives you solid ground to stand on. From here, you can make real choices about how to support yourself through this passage.