You’ve done the work. You’ve optimized, tracked, supplemented, and tried harder. And you still feel broken. That’s not a personal failure — it’s the predictable result of a culture that systematically dismisses midlife women’s physiological reality.
Low libido in perimenopause isn’t a hormone deficiency or a relationship failure — it’s your body asking whether it can afford connection right now. Desire requires surplus. When the system is depleted, the signal goes quiet.
That weepy crash, the breast tenderness, the histamine flares — you’ve been told it’s low estrogen. But in perimenopause, it’s more often overflow followed by withdrawal. The problem isn’t scarcity. It’s turbulence.
Everyone talks about luteal phase mood crashes. But in perimenopause, it’s often mid-cycle — around ovulation — that blindsides you with dread, tears, and a nervous system on high alert.
HRT can calm symptoms, but it doesn’t rewind time. Menopause is a nervous-system and emotional reckoning, not an estrogen deficiency.
“Menopausal mouth” is a nervous-system and immune signal tied to estrogen loss, vagal tone, and terrain shift.