Here is a story shared by a WLB site visitor about brain fog — specifically name recall. As with all things that arise during this time of changing hormones, it’s so good to realize we aren’t alone!
When I was in my early 40s I noticed a fairly sudden change in my ability to remember names of people that I should know. This was different than not remembering people that I had been introduced to once before. I would have trouble retrieving names of some of the staff that worked in my office or a longtime neighbor down the street. I could usually come up with the name by slowly taking my brain on a detour to recall other things about the person.
My husband started to cover for me in social situations and we talked about whether I should see a doctor. I was not having memory problems other than with names so we decided it could not be too worrisome.
I remember talking about it with my mother about a year after it began and she told me that the same thing had happened to her in her 40s or 50s and to many people that she knew. She said that she has learned tricks to try to minimize the recall problem. I was reassured to know that I was not alone with this problem (and that it wasn’t a brain tumor!) It may be something genetic in my family or it may be part of the normal aging process. I was also relieved to read the recent article about brain fog in perimenopause posted on your site in which a physician describes that name-specific memory problems are something commonly seen during this time. My name recall does seem to go up and down over time but now I have reached a point that I am annoyed about it but no longer worried. — LA
More on what is known about brain fog during perimenopause can be found here.
