Many women in perimenopause describe the emotional sensitivity as feeling like they have “thinner skin.” Things that once rolled off, now register. Conversations replay in your mind. Disappointment feels sharper. Even affection can feel more intense.

Perimenopause cuts your reserves at the exact moment that life asks the most of you. Career, kids, aging parents, a share of the household that never got balanced. You ran on this for years with hormonal support. Now that support is fading, and the same demands start to feel impossible.