Nothing in particular went wrong last year. That is what makes it difficult to describe to anyone. A parent needed more phone calls than before. Work reorganised twice. Sleep was fine on paper and never quite finished the job. By spring you were carrying something, and there was no single event to hang it on. When the loop runs again and again over months, with too little room in between, something accumulates.

A message lands before a meeting: "can we talk before we star ?". Your chest tightens, your attention narrows. That reaction runs on two systems, not one: a fast jolt of adrenaline within seconds, and a slower hormonal relay, ending in cortisol, that decides how you feel an hour later. Understanding how cortisol actually works is the first step toward working with it.

The stress response is designed to switch itself off. Cortisol helps activate the body under pressure, then feeds back to the brain to shut the response down. Around perimenopause, fluctuating estrogen may make this regulation less consistent. The result can be slower recovery, disrupted sleep, and a body that stays alert after the stressor has passed.