Menopausal difficulties increase in line with severity of ADHD symptoms, study finds

Women with more severe ADHD symptoms tend to experience worse menopausal complaints, new research has found.

The study explored how ADHD symptoms and medication use relate to menopausal experiences and found that symptom severity, not diagnosis alone, was associated with greater difficulties.

Researchers analysed data from 656 women aged 45 to 60, including 245 with an ADHD diagnosis. Of those, 107 were taking medication for the condition.

The team aimed to assess whether ADHD is linked to worse menopausal complaints, whether medication affects this, and whether symptom severity is a factor.

ADHD shares several characteristics with menopausal symptoms, such as disrupted sleep, memory and concentration difficulties, and reduced wellbeing. Despite this, little research has focused on how women with ADHD experience the menopause.

The results showed that while the type of complaints differed across the menopausal stages, an ADHD diagnosis did not directly influence them.

Premenopausal women reported fewer memory and concentration problems than perimenopausal women, but not postmenopausal women.

Perimenopausal women also had more psychosocial symptoms than both other groups.

Researchers found no evidence that ADHD medication affected menopausal complaints.

However, they did find that across all participants, more severe ADHD traits were linked to greater menopausal difficulties.

Professor Ellie Dommett is professor of neuroscience at King’s IoPPN and the study’s senior author.

She said: “This is an important first study examining menopausal experiences in ADHD, which demonstrates that the presence of ADHD may impact how women perceive and attribute their experiences during the menopause.

“This has implications for how women are supported during this time, both with their ADHD and the menopause,” said

Further analysis revealed differing patterns depending on medication use.

Among women with ADHD who were not taking medication, symptom severity correlated only with complaints of anxiety, depression, memory and concentration.

For those taking medication, stronger correlations were found between ADHD traits and difficulties with wellbeing, memory, concentration, psychosocial functioning, and disruption to daily life from hot flushes and night sweats.