Struggling to Concentrate with Menopause? (5 best tools to help)

Hands up if you are struggling to concentrate with menopause and brain fog.

Brain fog is the worst, it is one of the menopausal symptoms that can really disrupt your daily life, work can become affected, home life becomes harder and you question if you have normal brain function!

I am going to have a look at some of the ways you can help improve struggling to concentrate with menopause.

Let me start by saying I am not a medical professional in any way, I am here to share my experience of brain fog and what I have used to help me with it.

What Causes Menopause Brain Fog?

When the depletion of the estrogen levels in our bodies begins, we start to see symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. There are estrogen receptors all over our brains which can affect mood, memory and brain function.

As the estrogen lowers, we can notice changes in our cognitive function such as brain fog, memory loss, mood swings, and mental confusion, and our brain feels sluggish, there is no other way to describe it really.

It is worth noting that brain fog and lack of concentration are closely linked to other menopausal symptoms such as lack of sleep from night sweats, anxiety and depression.

Sleep issues have always played a big part in cognitive issues and experiencing brain fog is common in new mums, students around exams, and insomniacs amongst many more.

How To Improve Concentration During Menopause:

There are a few ways you can help with brain fog which are very helpful and easy to do, I have written a post about brain fog and what can be done, including regular exercise, good sleep and supplements to support brain health, so do check it out.

But what about tools that can make a difference?

Menopausal brain fog really did a number on me, I was exhausted, forgot entire conversations, forgot appointments, names, school pick up, you name it, I forgot it.

A lot of women struggle to concentrate with menopause.

Such cognitive impairment honestly led me to think I was going insane, I often looked up dementia symptoms to see if that was what was happening to me. Menopausal women find that it has to get pretty bad with other symptoms before we realise, menopause transition is upon us.

If you feel you have any form of cognitive decline, please go and speak to a GP. It is always best to check out if sleep problems, decreased energy and or anxiety are causing these other symptoms.

Do All Menopausal Women Get Brain Fog?

No, is the simple answer. Not all women get all symptoms, some women are largely unaffected by the menopause transition, however, many women, like me, get hit quite badly by brain fog.

Hormone replacement therapy has done wonders for me and my menopause symptoms. I think most of them have gone up in a puff of smoke, but now and then brain fog sneaks its way back in, but this could be due to my poor quality sleep. I was never a great sleeper.

I never want to downplay brain fog, it caused mayhem in my work life, and it took a lot of organising, planning, recording, documenting and list-making to get me through it.

For those that are suffering from brain fog and are having some cognitive challenges, there are a few nifty tools online that can help.

5 Online Tools To Help With Concentration

Middle-aged women unite!

We have the internet at our disposal and we need to take advantage of it to help with our memory and our concentration. We only have so much bandwidth and we need to use it wisely.

I have had a look around and sites that are meant to be the best for helping with all of this. I have used some of these so do have a read and please let me know if you have used any!

Brain.fm

Brain.fm is the answer if you are struggling to concentrate with menopause. I use this every single day when I am working.

The idea behind this is that normal music is designed to grab your attention but this is designed to blend into the background, the gentle rhythmic pulses are scientifically proven to help you focus on the task at hand.

They have done a bunch of studies and from what I can see as an overstimulated Mum who has a very busy job, this sounded like heaven. It may not be specifically for brain fog, but I am all for anything that can help me concentrate.

Brain.fm worked for me, it cut out the noise of the washing machine, dishwasher, email pinging, phone buzzing, dogs snoring, and kids arguing upstairs about who ate the last KitKat. It not only cut out the noise but replaced it with something I really felt got me in the right zone to work hard.

If focusing is an issue due to brain fog, I highly recommend brain.fm. If you want to give it a go I have a code to get you 20% off, the code is: menopausehelp.

Focus-To-Do

Focus-to-do is a task management application and it helps you to manage the mountains of things you have to do in a timely manner.

The clever thing with this is that you don’t have to be tied to a desk, if you have a remote task you can still track yourself on your mobile phone.

Knowing how long a task can take is crucial in being able to manage your time effectively.

If you have never heard of the Pomodoro technique I strongly advise you to go and check it out. I use it every single day because my brain fog means that I have the attention span on a March Fly.

This application focuses heavily on the Pomodoro technique and it means the overwhelm of it all does not take over.

Freedom

Freedom is a system that blocks all the distracting websites, apps and social media across all your electronic devices, allowing you to use what diminishing concentration you have on the real tasks at hand.

Freedom is the next level when it comes to harnessing a distraction-free life. If you are struggling to concentrate with menopause you should really try this out. 

I don’t know about you but when I have brain fog, lack of concentration, hot flashes, and memory issues, the first thing I do is grab my phone and look for a distraction.

Most women have to balance 1000 things at any one time and this level of overwhelm naturally leads us to procrastinate and this, in turn, makes the workload increase and the brain fog fear even greater.

Pomofocus

Pomofocus is all about Pomodoro. We have spoken about the Pomordoro technique and if you have not had a chance to go check it out then in simple terms, you work at 100% concentration for 25 minutes and then take a 5 minute break.

This is a desktop timer to keep you on track to stay in your 25 minutes of concentration. I know that if I set a 25 minute timer on my phone, picked it up when the alarm went off, you can bet your ass I will be on Instagram 2 seconds later.

I use my Pomofocus timer every day and it really does help to keep me on track and focused.

One Big Thing

One Big Thing is an app designed to help you focus on the one big thing you have to do today and 3 smaller things.So if you are struggling to concentrate with menopause please to give this a try.

The reason this is so clever is that it actually keeps you focused on the one big thing to get done that day. 

The developer based this around the theories written in Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism, this is a great book and if you get the chance, check it out.

If, like me, you are someone who loves to make a list (largely born from a fear of forgetting something) but often forgets to prioritise the most important task that day.

The one big thing, usually the least exciting thing, to get done in a day, is kept at the forefront of your mind, no matter where you are.

Closing Thoughts

Women’s health should be taken care of much better than it is, this is true in all aspects of our health. The menopause is largely misunderstood and certainly mistreated by doctors, employers, partners and sometimes friends who are not going through it.

Being brain healthy is so important, yet we seem not to take it as seriously as physical health.

Menopausal brain fog is and always will be hard to explain and even harder to try and fix. I have been lucky with my combination of HRT and helping me with my concentration but I have had to do a lot of work finding tools, apps and systems to help me keep sane, keep my house in order and keep my job!

If you find yourself struggling to concentrate with menopause or any other cognitive symptoms, please go and speak to a professional. If it is menopausal then you can arm yourself with everything you need to get a hold of it, but it is best to know exactly what is going on and get the correct treatment.

Kathryn x