18/02/2026
When we hit our 40s and start feeling:
• overwhelmed
• anxious for no clear reason
• exhausted but wired
• snappy
• struggling with sleep
• heavier or more erratic cycles
We start thinking about oestrogen. And progesterone. Possibly even testosterone. And yes — absolutely those matter.
But the hormone I often see disrupting everything?
Cortisol. Which we talk a lot about, but not many of us are taught that it’s a hormone - a stress hormone.
And when your nervous system has been on alert for years — juggling all the things— cortisol becomes your background setting.
And when it stays elevated for too long, your s*x hormones down regulate, your sleep quality deteriorates, your digestion slows, blood sugar becomes less stable, anxiety increases…
So it’s not that your other hormones don’t matter. It’s that stress hormones can hijack the entire system, making you feel like you don’t recognise yourself anymore.
And this is why nervous system support matters so much in peri/menopause.
Because when the stress response softens, everything else has a chance to rebalance ✨
