Burnout or Perimenopause?
Perimenopause can look like fatigue.
It can also look like brain fog, poor sleep, irritability, anxiety, low mood, weight changes, loss of motivation, or a heavy, sluggish feeling in the body.
In other words, it can look exactly like what many women are told is burnout.
This symptom overlap is one of the main reasons perimenopause is often missed or mislabelled as burnout — by women themselves and sometimes by healthcare providers.
When burnout is part of the picture — but not the whole story
For many women, work really is demanding.
Long hours, responsibility, emotional labour, and sustained mental load can lead to genuine work-related burnout. Acknowledging this matters.
At the same time, many women notice that their ability to cope has changed.
Stress feels heavier. Recovery takes longer. Things that were once manageable suddenly aren’t.
This often leads to questions like:
Why does work affect me more than it used to?
Why does burnout feel deeper or harder to recover from this time?
Questions many women begin asking
As fatigue and emotional depletion persist, many women start to wonder:
Could I be burned out from work — but also physically less resilient than before?
Has something changed in my body that makes stress hit harder now?
Is there something underneath this fatigue that isn’t only related to my work environment?
These questions don’t deny burnout. They reflect a sense that the full picture hasn’t yet been explored.
Where perimenopause fits in
Perimenopause is a hormonal transition phase that can begin years before menopause, often while menstrual cycles are still regular.
For many women, symptoms start in the early to mid-40s, though they can appear earlier. Perimenopause commonly lasts 4–8 years.
During this phase, oestrogen and progesterone levels fluctuate rather than decline steadily. These fluctuations affect systems involved in:
energy regulation
sleep quality
mood and anxiety
cognitive function and brain fog
stress response and recovery
Research suggests that 70–80% of women experience symptoms during perimenopause, and many of these are psychological or cognitive — not just physical symptoms like hot flushes.
As hormonal patterns change, the body’s physiological resilience to stress can decrease. This means that even if work and life demands stay the same, coping and recovery may feel much harder.
For many women, this is the point where ongoing stress tips into a more serious or prolonged exhaustion — not due to weakness, but due to biological change.
Why burnout and perimenopause are often confused
Awareness of perimenopause is growing, but many women still reach this life stage without clear information about what it can feel like.
As a result, midlife fatigue is often explained as burnout alone — especially when work is demanding and routine blood tests fall within reference ranges.
What is frequently missed is how hormonal transition can amplify stress, reduce recovery capacity, and intensify burnout symptoms.
A more complete way of understanding midlife fatigue
For many women, the most accurate explanation isn’t burnout or perimenopause — it’s both.
Work stress may be the trigger.
Perimenopause may lower resilience.
Together, they can lead to fatigue, emotional depletion, and a sense of crisis.
Understanding this interaction often brings relief — because it finally makes sense.
What to explore with your GP
If fatigue, low mood, or burnout symptoms aren’t improving with rest or stress reduction alone, it may help to explore whether other factors are contributing.
Some women choose to ask about:
whether perimenopause could be relevant, even with regular cycles
whether iron status, thyroid function, or key nutrients have been reviewed
how stress and hormonal changes may be interacting
These conversations don’t require certainty — just clarity.
If this resonates
If you recognise yourself here, you’re not imagining things — and you’re not failing.
Burnout can be real. Perimenopause can be real. And sometimes, the combination is what turns pressure into exhaustion.
Understanding that context doesn’t solve everything — but it often changes what happens next.
