There is a sentence women say quietly, usually near the end of an appointment, usually while reaching for a coat: I think there is something wrong with my brain. The measured answer is more reassuring and more precise than either the fear or the dismissal. Women in late perimenopause stopped improving on repeated cognitive testing while every other group carried on, and then the curve came back. But underneath that sits a second question, about ADHD in this window, where a systematic review went looking for studies and found none.

I have always had a lot of fears. And since a young age I have been adamant about overcoming them. Not tiptoeing around them. Collecting them. Every time I collect one — every time I do the thing and survive it — something happens that still astounds me. How easy the second time is. How there is almost literally no stopping me. I always thought this was a mindset. It is not a mindset. It is fear extinction — and the female brain is specifically, hormonally primed for it at particular points in the cycle. Here is the science behind the thing that has helped me most.