Perimenopause didn't arrive with a clear announcement for me. It crept in quietly, and I slowly stopped feeling like myself. The anxiety, the panic attacks on the way to work, the lost confidence. Even as a GP, I missed what was happening until it knocked me sideways.

Before perimenopause, breakfast was an afterthought. Something quick, grabbed in the rush between getting ready and getting my daughter out the door. But somewhere along the line, that stopped working. Here's what changed when I started doing things differently.

If you've been telling yourself to push through, cope better and just be more resilient, you're not alone. But what if that's not actually the problem? In perimenopause, your body's ability to buffer stress changes, and no amount of trying harder fixes that. Here's what does.