This episode was prompted by the following question:
“Will hormone therapy help with emotional lability, dysthymia, and crying jags? “
In this episode, I discuss:
How common it is to have depressive symptoms during perimenopause
The difference between depressive symptoms and depression
The difference between cognitive symptoms and mood symptoms
The psychosocial impact of perimenopause on mood
The biologic reason that a lack of estrogen causes emotional lability, sadness and other mood symptoms
When hormone therapy helps..and when it doesn’t
Non-hormonal options to alleviate mood symptoms
National Suicide Prevention Hotline
Dial 988
If you are feeling overwhelmed, depressed, and thinking about suicide or self-harm, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention, and crisis resources for you or your loved ones.
Lauren Streicher, MD is a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and the founding medical director of the Northwestern Medicine Center for Sexual Medicine and Menopause. She is a certified menopause practitioner of the North American Menopause Society.
Dr. Streicher is the medical correspondent for Chicago’s top-rated news program, the WGN Morning News, and has been seen on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, NPR, Dr. Radio, Nightline, Fox and Friends, The Steve Harvey Show, CBS This Morning, ABC News Now, NBCNightlyNews,20/20, and World News Tonight. She is an expert source for many magazines and serves on the medical advisory board of The Kinsey Institute, Self Magazine, and Prevention Magazine. She writes a regular column for The Ethel by AARP and Prevention Magazine.