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How do I know if I'm in perimenopause?
- Tamara Beckford
- May 21
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 2
I thought I was losing my edge.
Walking into rooms and forgetting why I was there.
Losing words mid-sentence. With my own patients.
Waking up at 2am. Mind racing. Over nothing.
I told myself it was stress.
I was a doctor. A mom. Of course I was overwhelmed.
But something kept nagging at me.
This doesn’t feel like stress.
This feels like something is happening inside my body that I don’t understand.
I was right.
My hormones were shifting.
And nobody had connected those dots for me.
Not even me. A physician who specializes in this.
That is the thing about perimenopause.
It does not announce itself.
It creeps in wearing the disguise of anxiety, brain fog, insomnia, irritability.
And because we are women who push through, we call it life and keep moving.
The average woman waits seven years before getting real answers.
Seven years.
This episode is my answer to that.
Let’s change that number.
Talk soon,
Dr. Tamara Beckford
What’s in the News
Here is something that needs to be said out loud.
Around one in three perimenopausal women are offered antidepressants.
Even when they do not meet the criteria for clinical depression.
A study from Newson Health, presented at the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health, looked at 1,081 perimenopausal and menopausal women already taking antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications.
All were prescribed hormone replacement therapy.
Three months later, a significant number had reduced or stopped their psychiatric medications entirely.
The researchers were clear.
HRT is the first-line recommended treatment for hormone-related psychological symptoms.
Not antidepressants.
Hormones.
If you have ever been handed a prescription for anxiety or depression without anyone asking whether your hormones might be the root cause.
This study is for you.
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NEW EPISODE: How Do I Actually Know If I’m in Perimenopause?
This is the question I get almost every week.
And it makes sense.
Because most women have never been told what perimenopause actually is.
When it starts. What it really looks like.
This episode is for you if:
You have been brushing off symptoms for months. Or years.
You keep being told everything looks fine.
You just feel unlike yourself and cannot explain why.
In this episode I break it all the way down.
What perimenopause actually is and why it is not the same as menopause.
The symptoms that go way beyond hot flashes.
Why hormonal testing alone can miss what is really going on.
Why it takes so long for women to get answers.
And five things you can do right now.
Download it. Listen this week.
Then reply and tell me which symptom surprised you most.
I read every single one.
Know someone who keeps saying she just doesn’t feel right?
Send her this episode. It is exactly what she has been looking for.
Two ways to work with me.
Ready to talk through what's happening in your body? If you're dealing with sleep disruption, mood shifts, hormonal weight gain, or brain fog and you're in Texas, Iowa, Illinois, Georgia, or Michigan — book your complimentary 45-minute consult call. We'll look at where you are and what your next step looks like.
Already have labs and don't know what to do with them? I'll review your hormone labs as a physician and help you develop the language to actually communicate your needs with your current provider. You don't have to keep walking out of appointments more confused than when you walked in.
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