Pause Lumiere

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Dr Emily Watters
GP 👩🏼‍⚕️ Perimenopause & Menopause
Founder of Pause Lumiere, F2F & 📞
Helping women navigate the Pauses with better health than when they started ✨

Ever feel your heart skip a beat? Or start acting like you just ran a 10km when you were sitting on the couch 🤔 there ar...
23/04/2026

Ever feel your heart skip a beat? Or start acting like you just ran a 10km when you were sitting on the couch 🤔 there are reasons why!

Estrogen and your heart are buddies. Everyone can struggle when they lose their buddy!
15/04/2026

Estrogen and your heart are buddies. Everyone can struggle when they lose their buddy!

This is one of the most common cognitive changes women notice during perimenopause.It can feel subtle at first — word-fi...
13/04/2026

This is one of the most common cognitive changes women notice during perimenopause.

It can feel subtle at first — word-finding difficulty, losing your train of thought, reduced concentration — and for many women, it’s deeply unsettling.

Importantly, this is not usually a sign of cognitive decline into dementia in your 40s!

During perimenopause, fluctuating estrogen affects key brain systems involved in memory, attention, and processing speed. Estrogen supports synaptic plasticity, neurotransmitter signalling, and how the brain produces and uses energy.

As levels become more variable, these systems become less efficient — particularly in areas such as the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, important areas for memory and general function!

Sleep disruption and increased stress reactivity can further impair attention and memory consolidation, amplifying these symptoms.

And while there is a lot we can do to improve general brain function, NOTHING can take you out of perimenopause!

If you’d like to understand what’s happening in your brain — and how to support it — Pause Lumiere can help!

07/04/2026

Estrogen is throughout the brain, and this really shows up for many women in Perimenopause. If you’re struggling with mood or cognitive symptoms, Pause Lumiere can help. We can’t wait to meet you!

Dementia is a frightening and often emotionally charged prospect for many people, as we usually know someone who suffere...
31/03/2026

Dementia is a frightening and often emotionally charged prospect for many people, as we usually know someone who suffered or is suffering. There is a lot we can do to protect our brain as we age … sudoku is great, so are these things!

Did you know estrogen plays a critical role in how your brain produces energy?Estrogen helps regulate glucose metabolism...
25/03/2026

Did you know estrogen plays a critical role in how your brain produces energy?

Estrogen helps regulate glucose metabolism within brain cells — essentially influencing how efficiently your brain can generate and use energy.

As estrogen levels fluctuate in perimenopause, this process becomes less stable. The result can feel like:
• brain fog
• reduced concentration
• mental fatigue
• slower processing speed

This is not a lack of effort or ability. It reflects a shift in brain energy availability. These symptoms can improve significantly with appropriate hormone management, sleep, and exercise + dietary habits that address systemic insulin resistance.

Brain fog is one of the most common — and most misunderstood — symptoms of perimenopause. It is often far worse in perim...
23/03/2026

Brain fog is one of the most common — and most misunderstood — symptoms of perimenopause. It is often far worse in perimenopause than post-menopause, but can linger for many women far longer than acceptable … not that any period of timing suffering is acceptable!

It can show up as word-finding difficulty, reduced concentration, slower processing, and mental fatigue.

These changes are driven by fluctuating estrogen, which affects neurotransmitters, brain energy metabolism, and memory pathways. Sleep disruption and increased stress reactivity often compound the effect.

Importantly, this is not a sign of cognitive decline! Your brain is just as capable as it has always been, it’s in an altered neuroendocrine state which is making your life more challenging.

You’re not alone, and there is help available!

We know that estrogen is incredibly important for brain health, though more study is needed on the impacts of body-ident...
21/03/2026

We know that estrogen is incredibly important for brain health, though more study is needed on the impacts of body-identical HRT for dementia risk.

Cognitive symptoms can be incredibly debilitating and many women tell me about their struggles with work and relationships as a consequence.

Looking after our brains is so important! And we have a lot of control, more than we realise. One important piece is to consider how much of everyone else’s load you are carrying …

If you feel like your whole personality has shifted in Peri, you’re not alone. Irritability is one of the most common sy...
18/03/2026

If you feel like your whole personality has shifted in Peri, you’re not alone. Irritability is one of the most common symptoms I see, because during perimenopause, several hormonal changes affect emotional regulation.

Fluctuating estrogen destabilises serotonin, dopamine, and GABA signalling, while also increasing stress reactivity through the HPA axis. At the same time, progesterone levels often fall as ovulation becomes less consistent. Progesterone and its metabolites normally have calming effects on the brain through GABA receptors, so lower levels can reduce emotional buffering.

Sleep disruption also plays an important role. Insomnia and fragmented sleep reduce cognitive capacity and emotional tolerance, making it harder for the brain to regulate frustration and stress.

The combination of hormonal signalling changes and sleep disruption can lower the threshold for irritability.
Naturally, many women with existing PMS and PMDD will also find that these conditions worsen in perimenopause as well.

Importantly, managing sleep and our other tools to regulate like exercise and mindfulness will help. Appropriate MHT will too!

09/03/2026

Meet Rachel! Mum let me interview her for the ‘gram, despite being very unfamiliar with Insta.

Mums story is very familiar - though she had clear Estrogen deficiency symptoms in her early 40s, she put a lot of other symptoms down to life stress. She had a bad experience with her first round of HRT, and wasn’t with a provider who could individualise it for her - so she stopped, and suffered through night sweats and hot flushes for another 15 years.

A few years ago, in her early 60s, she started body-identical HRT and her symptoms have completely resolved. Unfortunately, despite being a legend on the tennis court and pretty active otherwise, she was markedly osteopenic after almost 20 years of low Estrogen and only a couple of years back with hormone. She’s starting jump therapy, vitamin D/k and calcium to get those bones strong! It’s always always worth screening EARLY for conditions like osteoporosis and heart disease, even if you don’t have a family history - prevention is better than treatment.

Luckily, mums got awesome muscle mass and low visceral fat to help prevent disease long term.

You’re never too old for HRT, suffering is optional. Individualising treatment is so important for quality of life and disease prevention.

Shout out to mumma bear!

Women have been managing themselves and others since they were kids. The cognitive burden can be huge! Hormonal shifts f...
06/03/2026

Women have been managing themselves and others since they were kids. The cognitive burden can be huge! Hormonal shifts from perimenopause onwards can make this exponentially harder, which naturally women will take on as a personal failing.

It’s not. New strategies may need to be employed, while managing the symptoms hormonally … at-least one of those strategies is telling those who lean too heavily on you to f*ck off!! While not forgetting trying to sleep, exercise, drink less and eat well 🫠😂

Perimenopause is the highest-risk life stage for new-onset anxiety — higher than the postpartum period in several large ...
25/02/2026

Perimenopause is the highest-risk life stage for new-onset anxiety — higher than the postpartum period in several large cohort studies.

This risk is driven by hormonal variability, not simply low estrogen… and not by an antidepressant deficiency!

Fluctuating estrogen alters serotonin and GABA signalling, increases HPA axis sensitivity, and amplifies stress reactivity. Poor overall sleep and REM sleep loss snowball this effect.

For some women, this presents as:
• new anxiety without prior history
• panic symptoms
• early-morning waking with a “wired” feeling
• intrusive or catastrophic thinking

This is a recognised neuroendocrine phenomenon — and it is treatable. The most effective treatment for a hormonal problem is … *drum roll* … hormones!

You do not have to suffer. This anxiety is not because you’re doing something wrong or “not coping”.

If you’d like to know more, or to start exploring your own perimenopause or menopause journey, visit Pause Lumiere.

We can’t wait to meet you!

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Castle Hill Medical Centre
Murrumba Downs, QLD
4503

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