Headspace Studios.

Hey friends, it's Rosie here.

Welcome back to Radio Headspace.

Just before I turned 40, something happened that I did not see coming.

I was sitting on the couch watching Expedition Unknown on the Discovery Channel.

Nothing dramatic, no crisis, no major life shift.

Just me, casually watching someone dig through some ancient ruins and then out of nowhere my heart

started racing not in a this show is intense way in a full body what is happening to me kind of way

my chest tightened my vision narrowed my breath, I felt like I was losing control.

It had been years since I'd had a panic attack.

The last time I experienced anything like that, I was a teenager.

So this felt confusing.

Weeks of tests followed.

Blood work specialists, appointments, that quiet medical

limbo where you start Googling symptoms at 2 a.m. and convincing yourself of everything and nothing at

once? Eventually, the answer came. Perarymenopause.

Young, I know.

But studies are finding that women between the ages of 35 and 45 can begin experiencing symptoms much earlier than we've historically talked about.

Mood shifts, anxiety, sleep disruption, panic attacks, hormonal fluctuations that

rippled through a nervous system in ways we don't immediately recognize. What struck me the most

wasn't just the diagnoses. It was the realization that my body had been changing quietly while I was

busy living. We get so distracted by

...