The Perimenopausal Brain at Work

Understanding cognitive, emotional and relational shifts, and why they matter in schools

Somewhere in a school today, a teacher is sitting in a meeting, and the name of one of her students has simply disappeared from her mind. She thinks she’s losing her edge. She isn’t.

While public conversation around perimenopause tends to focus narrowly on hormones and hot flushes, many women describe the cognitive, emotional and relational changes as the most disruptive: brain fog, word loss, emotional intensity, reduced tolerance and a sense of no longer feeling like themselves.

As pressure builds across schools in Term 2, many women find these changes become harder to ignore. Drawing on neuroscience and psychology, this session introduces participants to the perimenopausal brain, explores how behavioural and relational shifts can impact teams, classrooms and home life, and explains why periods of transition often become “noisy” before they settle. The session holds two truths at once: perimenopause can be genuinely hard, and it can also open the way for greater clarity, depth and self-knowledge.