Perimenopause for Social Work Professionals: Sustaining Yourself While Supporting Others
Social workers face high emotional demands during perimenopause. This guide covers managing fatigue, mood changes, and brain fog in a caring profession.
Compassion Fatigue and Hormonal Fatigue: A Compounding Effect
Compassion fatigue, the cumulative cost of caring for people in distress, is an occupational hazard in social work. During perimenopause, physical fatigue driven by disrupted sleep, night sweats, and hormonal fluctuation adds to this toll in ways that can be hard to disentangle. The result is an exhaustion that goes beyond tiredness, one that makes it harder to show up fully for the people who depend on you and for yourself. Distinguishing between professional burnout and perimenopausal fatigue matters because they call for different responses. Both deserve attention, but hormonal fatigue often responds well to sleep improvements, nutritional changes, and where appropriate, hormonal treatment. Burnout typically requires workload adjustments, supervision, and sometimes a change in professional environment.
Brain Fog in a Job That Demands Clear Thinking
Social work requires accurate risk assessment, clear documentation, and the ability to hold complex case details in working memory. Brain fog, the perimenopause symptom characterised by forgetfulness, slow retrieval, and difficulty concentrating, can feel dangerous in this context. Social workers report forgetting appointments, losing track of case details mid-meeting, or struggling to write reports with their usual fluency. These symptoms are temporary for most women and are directly linked to oestrogen's effects on memory and attention. Practical strategies include using structured templates for documentation, keeping detailed written notes during home visits, and blocking time for case work that requires sustained concentration during the parts of the day when cognitive clarity is highest. If brain fog is severe, raising it with a GP or menopause specialist is appropriate.
Managing Emotional Reactivity at Work
Irritability and heightened emotional reactivity are among the most commonly reported perimenopausal symptoms, and they sit uncomfortably in a profession that requires regulated, empathic responses under pressure. Many social workers describe feeling a surge of anger or distress that would not have affected them in the same way before perimenopause, and then feeling guilty about it afterwards. This is not a character flaw. Oestrogen plays a significant role in emotional regulation through its effects on serotonin and the stress hormone cortisol. When oestrogen fluctuates, the threshold for emotional dysregulation lowers. Reflective supervision, which is already part of good social work practice, is a valuable space to name this experience and receive support. Colleagues and managers who understand perimenopause are better placed to offer the right kind of response.
Practical Adjustments in the Workplace
Social work environments vary widely, from office settings to home visits, courts, hospitals, and residential settings. The practicalities of managing physical symptoms such as hot flashes depend on the setting, but there are common strategies that apply across environments. Staying well hydrated, wearing layers that can be adjusted discreetly, keeping a small fan at a desk or in a car, and planning physically demanding activities for times of day when energy is higher all help. Social workers who feel comfortable raising perimenopause with a line manager or HR are better placed to negotiate adjustments such as flexible start times, remote working options, or protected time for self-care between high-intensity visits. Many organisations now have menopause policies, and occupational health services can support formal adjustments.
Self-Care Is Not Optional in This Profession
Social workers are often better at caring for others than themselves, and perimenopause has a way of making this imbalance unsustainable. Sleep, regular movement, adequate nutrition, and emotional support are not luxuries during the perimenopause transition. They are part of what allows you to continue doing demanding work. Regular exercise, even moderate walking a few times a week, supports mood, sleep, and bone density. Reducing alcohol intake can significantly reduce hot flash frequency and improve sleep quality. Eating enough protein supports muscle mass and metabolic health, both of which matter more during this transition. Connecting with peers who understand what you are experiencing, whether through formal supervision, peer support groups, or personal relationships, reduces isolation.
Logging Symptoms to Build Self-Awareness
When your working days are filled with other people's needs, it can be hard to pay attention to your own patterns. Using PeriPlan to log symptoms over time creates a record that helps you see what is changing, identify triggers, and notice whether practical changes or medical interventions are making a difference. Tracking mood, energy, sleep, and physical symptoms alongside your working days can reveal patterns, such as symptoms worsening during high-caseload weeks or improving after rest. This data is also useful when speaking with a GP or menopause specialist, providing a clear picture of your experience rather than relying on memory of how you felt across months of fluctuating symptoms.
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