Hormones, Brain, And Behavior in Women with ADHD


Some days your brain feels steady. You can finish tasks, hold a thought, and keep emotions in check. Other days everything feels louder. You forget simple things, snap at people you care about, and feel tired and wired at the same time. Many women with ADHD know this swing well and often blame themselves for it.

In The All-New Complete Evidence-Based Protocol for Women with ADHD, Dr. Katherine Tidman explains that these shifts often have a biological rhythm. She shows how changing levels of estrogen and progesterone interact with the ADHD brain and shape focus, mood, and behavior throughout a woman’s life.

Estrogen and progesterone are hormones that move through the body and act in the brain. Dr. Tidman describes how they influence dopamine and norepinephrine. These brain chemicals help control attention, motivation, and impulse control. When estrogen is higher, dopamine and norepinephrine activity can be stronger. Focus may feel easier. When progesterone rises and estrogen falls, these systems can become less active, and ADHD symptoms often feel worse.

The menstrual cycle is one clear example. In the first half of the cycle, estrogen levels rise. In the later, premenstrual phase, progesterone rises while estrogen falls. Dr. Tidman notes that many women and girls with ADHD report more distractibility, overwhelm, and emotional sensitivity in this second half of the cycle. She also points out that school-aged girls can show a worsening of symptoms when menstruation begins and particularly in the premenstrual phase.

Hormonal shifts also shape pregnancy, the time after birth, and menopause. The book describes pregnancy as a period when changing hormone levels can affect attention and memory and add new layers of complexity for women with ADHD. After childbirth, hormones change again and mix with sleep loss and new responsibilities. Later in life, falling estrogen during menopause is linked with brain fog and increased difficulty concentrating.

Hormones affect mood as well as focus. Dr. Tidman explains that lower estrogen can reduce serotonin and contribute to anxiety and depression. For a woman with ADHD, this means hormone shifts can amplify emotional swings and make reactions feel harder to control. What might look like a personal failing is often a nervous system responding to real biological changes.

The book does not stop at explaining the problem. It points to evidence based ways to support the brain through hormonal changes. Dr. Tidman highlights the value of a balanced diet that includes whole grains, lean proteins, healthy fats, B vitamins, and antioxidants to support hormone health and cognition. She describes how regular exercise and stress management practices help stabilize mood and improve attention. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy appears as a useful approach for handling mood swings and building coping skills around predictable hormonal dips.

Medical options can also play a role. Dr. Tidman notes that some women benefit from hormonal treatments such as oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy. These approaches can help smooth out extreme hormonal shifts. She is clear that such choices must be made with a doctor who understands the person’s full medical picture.

Hormones are only one piece of the story in this book. Dr. Tidman places them inside a wider framework that includes brain structure, genetics, environmental stress, nutrition, lifestyle, and psychology. She shows how these different layers combine to create the specific pattern of ADHD that many women live with. The protocol she outlines encourages readers to understand their own patterns, rather than seeing ADHD as a flat label.

Behind this work is her own story. Dr. Katherine Tidman is a Johns Hopkins trained scientist with a PhD in biology, and an emphasis on the. cell signaling  involved in tissue determination during development. She developed multiple sclerosis in her twenties yet lived with it under the wrong diagnosis for more  than fifteen years. She was experiencing relapse-remit Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS ) symptoms for those early years and by the time she  was correctly diagnosed with MS she was in the secondary progressive stage of the disease, according to her attending neurologist at Johns Hopkins at Jon Hopkins She is also a mother of two. Her experience with a long term neurological condition has given her a deep respect for how complex the body can be and how important it is to match science with real life. Through her website, Neuronova Network, readers can learn more about this work and explore how the ideas in the book connect to their own medical care.

She has also founded a consulting business where she provides newly diagnosed patients with cutting edge research so they can have informed discussions with their doctors about supplements and treatments. For women who see their ADHD symptoms rise and fall with hormonal changes, this kind of support can make it easier to ask precise questions and explore the options described in the book.

The message running through her work is simple and kind. Your hormones, brain, and behavior are deeply connected. When you understand that pattern and bring in evidence based support, you move from feeling at the mercy of your cycle or life stage to feeling more prepared, more informed, and more able to work with your neurodivergent brain.

You can find The All-New Complete Evidence-Based Protocol for Women with ADHD by Dr. Katherine Tidman on Amazon.

https://www.youtube.com/@KatherineTidman-g6d

https://www.tiktok.com/@katherinetidman

https://x.com/Katherintidman

https://www.instagram.com/katherinetidmanoffi/

https://www.facebook.com/katherinetidmanoff

https://neuronovanetwork.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Women’s ADHD, Explained with Care An Introduction to the New Protocol

Image
  The All-New Complete Evidence-Based Protocol for Women with ADHD by Dr. Katherine Tidman sets a clear aim: translate research into practices that fit real lives. The opening chapters spot a persistent pattern. People often overlook or misread girls and women, which delays support and undermines confidence at school, work, and home. The text shows how ADHD can present in females, why quieter inattentiveness and emotional load slip past notice, and what the cumulative costs look like. Dr. Tidman’s background shapes the book’s steady tone. She earned a Ph.D. in cell signaling and developmental biology at Johns Hopkins and later built a research consulting practice to help newly diagnosed patients make sense of evidence and prepare for clinician conversations. That scientific training, paired with lived perspective, guides the precise language and practical steps throughout. The book tracks how biology and environment interact. Hormonal shifts modulate symptoms across puberty,...
Read more

Neuroplasticity and The Possibility of Change in Women with ADHD

Image
  Helping women with ADHD shape how their brains respond. Many women reach an ADHD diagnosis after years of feeling scattered, emotional, and exhausted. It can feel final. It can sound like a label that says your brain is broken and will always be this way. In The All-New Complete Evidence-Based Protocol for Women with ADHD , Dr. Katherine Tidman offers a different story. She describes ADHD as a neurodivergent brain. She explains that this brain has real challenges, such as emotional regulation and attention, but also real strengths, such as hyperfocus, empathy, and pattern recognition. She builds the whole book on one hopeful idea. The brain can change. That change has a name. Neuroplasticity. What Neuroplasticity Means for Women with ADHD Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to reshape itself over time. It creates new connections between brain cells. It strengthens pathways that are used often. It lets the brain adapt to experience. For women with ADHD, this ...
Read more

A Practical Way to Read The All-New Complete Evidence-Based Protocol for Women with ADHD by Dr. Katherine Tidman

Image
The All-New Complete Evidence-Based Protocol for Women with ADHD by Dr. Katherine Tidman is designed to be usable on busy days. It translates research into clear, practical guidance, and it’s structured so you can start anywhere that matches your current needs. Begin by naming your reason for reading in one sentence. Better mornings. Fewer last-minute scrambles. A calmer workweek. Write that line at the top of a notes page and let it shape how you move through the chapters. When a section helps that goal, keep it. When it doesn’t, skip ahead without guilt. The book’s scope is broad on purpose, covering context, nutrition and lifestyle, psychology-based strategies, and medication within a wider plan, so there is always a sensible next place to land. Choose a reading path that fits your season. Some readers go front to back, one short segment at a time. Others skim the contents and start with the chapter that matches their current pain point, then circle back for context. Both appro...
Read more