Menopause Mood Swings | Perimenopause Treatment & Answers

by Deborah Maragopoulos FNP | Mar 8, 2021 | Menopause | 0 comments

Menopausal moodiness and irritability can affect your life and relationships drastically. Today, we’ll talk about how to treat menopause mood swings.

Moodiness is when your level of happiness, irritability, anger, or other emotion is excessive to the situation. Most women have experienced this sometime in their life, because being a woman is like being on a hormone roller coaster. During your reproductive years, you may suddenly feel exceptionally sad, depressed, anxious, or irritable. And then the very next day, you feel completely different, depending on where you are in your cycle.

When you begin perimenopause, you may start noticing your moods swinging more dramatically. For some women, it's mostly a kind of sadness, an unusual depression, or a lack of motivation. For a lot of women, it's rageful irritability. And for some women, it’s a chronic, angsty anxiety. Menopausal moodiness is different for everyone, and some women may experience all three types of moods.

So what's causing these unpredictable moods? The short answer is: your hormones.

Estrogen promotes serotonin production, progesterone promotes GABA production, and testosterone promotes dopamine production. So when your hormones are out of balance, it affects the way your brain functions, and in turn, your moods.

Your hypothalamus is the gatekeeper for the neurotransmitters that control your moods.

This is because your moods are related to your survival. You need to know when to be anxious in order to have a life-saving stress response. It’s your hypothalamus that instigates the bonding hormone oxytocin, produced between lovers, and by mothers as they cuddle their newborns.

Your hypothalamus controls how we interact with our surroundings by controlling our brain chemistry so that we can be safe and survive in the world.

Our hormones affect the production of our neurotransmitters, and as our hormones decline as we age, those neurotransmitters are not produced in adequate amounts to keep our moods stable.

If you already have a mood disorder, depression, anxiety, bipolar, or if you had postpartum depression, you're more likely to have issues during perimenopause and menopause. It’s not unusual for your mood disorder to get worse, because your hormones are depleted during the change.

How do you know if you’re experiencing menopause-related moodiness?

You’ll be able to tell because your moods will be extreme. Sometimes, you may not even notice how bad your mood swings are, and it will be your partner or family member who is the first to notice how unusual you’re acting.

That’s what happened to me. At the age of 49, I began perimenopause. I still had periods, didn’t experience weight gain, and generally felt great. However, my level of happiness began to plummet. I was exceptionally irritable, and I couldn’t seem to shake my own moodiness. I didn’t realize how much I was struggling until my husband sat me down, held my hand, and asked me, “If you were your own patient, wouldn’t you offer yourself some hormones?”

Taking Genesis Gold® delayed my perimenopause for 5-7 years later than my younger sisters. I didn’t go through actual menopause until I was 58, which was two years later than my mother. Being a lifelong athlete, I didn’t have enough body fat for adequate estrogen reserve, so I had to consider BHRT.

There are a few treatment options for menopause and mood swings.

First, you can consider hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Using hormones alongside the medications you're already taking is possible, but always talk with your healthcare provider about this first. Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) can also be very helpful in balancing your moods. But without balancing your hypothalamus, you will have to use more and more hormones to stay stable, which isn’t safe in the long run.

When dealing with menopause mood swings, balancing your hypothalamus should be your top priority.

When your hypothalamus is functioning optimally, your moods are much more stable. You're not nearly as anxious, depressed, or rageful. You’re going to respond appropriately to whatever situation you’re facing, because your hypothalamus is not so dysregulated by your low hormonal levels.

If you combine hypothalamic balancing with BHRT, you can use a lot less hormones, and you'll be much more balanced. I love to use my Genesis Gold® for hypothalamic balancing. And for the more severe cases, like those who have a history of postpartum depression or mood disorders, I'll add some extra Sacred Seven® to their Genesis Gold® to give them extra hypothalamic support.

We talk a lot about the best ways to deal with mood swings in our Hormone Support Group which you can access by joining our Hormone Reboot Training.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can your hypothalamus cause weight gain?

Yes. The hypothalamus is the master regulator of metabolism, controlling how your body stores and burns energy through its signaling to the thyroid, adrenals, and pancreas. When the hypothalamus becomes dysregulated by chronic stress, poor sleep, inflammation, or blood sugar instability, it defends a higher weight "set point" — causing the body to hold onto fat regardless of diet or exercise. This makes hypothalamic dysfunction an upstream root cause of stubborn weight gain.

What is a weight set point and why won't mine move?

A weight set point is the body weight your hypothalamus works to defend, calibrated over time by stress, sleep, hormones, and inflammation. When you diet, the hypothalamus perceives scarcity and responds by slowing metabolism, increasing hunger hormones, and suppressing satiety signals to return you to that set point. This is why most people regain lost weight within two to five years of conventional dieting — the set point itself was never recalibrated, only temporarily overridden.

Why do I gain weight under stress even when I'm not eating more?

Chronic stress raises cortisol, which disrupts blood sugar regulation, promotes abdominal fat storage, and signals the hypothalamus that the body is under threat. In survival mode, the hypothalamus defends fat stores and slows metabolism — so weight can increase even without any change in calorie intake. The stress chemistry, not the food, is driving the weight gain, which is why stress reduction is essential to any lasting metabolic reset.

Why do I regain weight after stopping GLP-1 medications?

GLP-1 medications work peripherally on appetite and gastric signaling, but they do not address the underlying hypothalamic dysregulation that sets your defended weight. Because the hypothalamic set point is never recalibrated, the body resumes defending its original weight once the medication stops — leading to significant regain. Long-term success requires restoring hypothalamic regulation so the set point itself lowers, rather than relying on appetite suppression alone.

How long does it take to reset your metabolism?

Genuine metabolic recalibration takes a minimum of 90 days, because the hypothalamus needs consistent signals of safety and sufficiency before it will lower its defended set point. This differs from a diet, which produces temporary suppression the body quickly corrects. A 90-day reset typically moves through three phases: stabilizing stress chemistry (days 1–30), rebuilding metabolic efficiency (days 31–60), and lowering the weight set point (days 61–90).

Why does my thyroid feel slow even though my labs are "normal"?

Under chronic stress, the body converts thyroid hormone into reverse T3, which blocks active thyroid receptors and slows metabolism at the cellular level — even when standard lab values appear normal. This means you can experience genuine symptoms of slow metabolism, such as fatigue, cold intolerance, and brain fog, while your thyroid panel looks unremarkable. Addressing the upstream hypothalamic and stress signaling often improves thyroid conversion and symptoms.

Is stubborn weight gain a willpower problem?

No. Stubborn weight gain is a signaling problem, not a willpower problem. The hypothalamus governs weight through survival mechanisms that operate below conscious control — defending its set point by slowing metabolism and increasing hunger when it perceives threat. No amount of discipline can override this system; lasting change comes from restoring hypothalamic regulation through reduced stress, balanced blood sugar, restorative sleep, and targeted nutritional support.

About the Author - Deborah Maragopoulos FNP

Known as the Hormone Queen®️, I’ve made it my mission to help everyone - no matter their age - balance their hormones, and live the energy and joy their DNA and true destiny desires. See more about me my story here...

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Last Updated: April 6, 2022