As with other menopause symptoms, it is important to understand why you are having mood swings. Don’t suffer in silence! If you are not aware of what’s happening within your body or if you are trying to suppress these fluctuations in emotion, your mood disorder can transform into anxiety and depression. 

When discussing mood swings and disorders with patients, it is sometimes helpful to think about them using a “money in the bank” analogy. 

Here is how it works: When we sleep, we produce brain chemicals called serotonin – a key brain chemical for stabilizing moods. Serotonin is your daily “money.” If we aren’t getting enough sleep, we cannot produce enough “money” for our daily “expenses.”

We “spend” our “money” (brain chemicals) on stressful events such as feeling overwhelmed with projects at work, busy family schedules, or having too much on our plate. As our estrogen levels begin to fall during menopause, we start spending these brain chemicals, including serotonin, even faster. When we are simultaneously not producing enough brain chemicals during sleep and are also spending them on stressful events in our lives, we do not have enough “money in the bank,” and we start to experience mood swings.