When Kat Frize was diagnosed with ADHD at 37, after facing challenges with exhaustion, relationships, communication and accidental injuries, the diagnosis – and the access to treatment that followed it – felt life-changing. But, still, there are points in her cycle when medication is so ineffective she questions whether she’s taken it at all. “Some months, it can feel like there are a good few days where it’s not kicking in like it usually would,” she says.
Despite women positing to their doctors, friends, and support groups online that their hormones exacerbate their ADHD symptoms and make medication less effective, there’s been little research to explore the connection. But now, in a first-of-its-kind study, academics at Queen Mary University and King’s College London have asked 50 women who take medication for ADHD to track their cycles and the impact that has on their neurodevelopmental condition, as well as their daily lives.
