Why Your Chronic Illness Got Dramatically Worse in Perimenopause: The Hormonal Cascade Driving Gut, Mast Cell, Brain Fog, and Fatigue Symptoms in Your 40s — The Pattern You Are Living

You are somewhere between thirty eight and fifty two years old. Something has changed. The chronic illness you have been managing for years got dramatically worse over the last twelve to thirty six months. Or you were essentially healthy for forty years and suddenly your body stopped working the way it used to. The symptom list grew. The fatigue is deeper and does not lift with rest. The brain fog is the worst part. You walk into rooms and forget what you came for. You read paragraphs three times. Names you knew well slip away. Your gut is different. Bloating that did not exist before. Reactions to foods you ate your whole life. Alcohol that used to be fine now produces a hangover from a single drink. You are flushing. You are itching. You react to fragrances now. You react to your old skincare. You react to supplements. Your sleep is fragmented. You wake at three in the morning and cannot fall back. Your joints ache. Your hair is thinning. You have gained weight that does not respond to anything you have tried. Your periods became erratic, or heavier, or both. You feel hot. You feel anxious in a way that is new. Your cycle that was clockwork for thirty years is no longer clockwork. You went to your doctor. The labs came back normal or close to it. The TSH was in range. The estrogen levels they checked were probably normal because they were checked on a random day in a system t