id: cognitive-symptoms
title: "Cognitive symptoms of menopause (brain fog)"
kind: symptom
summary: "A Lancet OGWH review describes cognitive symptoms in menopause as self-reported impairment in one or more domains (memory, attention, organisation, problem-solving, word retrieval) in the absence of notable objective decline, which can fluctuate and cause distress. Around two-thirds of women report cognitive concerns during the transition, yet in a large cohort (>14,000) objective cognitive performance differed only minimally across menopause status — the subjective/objective mismatch is the key reported finding."
evidence_strength: limited
status: published
sources:
  - url: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanogw/article/PIIS3050-5038(26)00043-9/fulltext
    title: "Cognitive symptoms of menopause (The Lancet OGWH review)"
    publisher: "The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Women's Health"
    study_type: "narrative-review"
  - url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11738833/
    title: "Objective cognitive performance across menopause status (cohort study)"
    publisher: "cohort study of perimenopausal/menopausal women"
    study_type: "cohort"
    note: "Sample >14,000; objective performance differed only minimally across menopause status."
signals:
  - sig-20260710-cognitive-definition
  - sig-20260710-cognitive-objective-effect
  - sig-20260710-cognitive-prevalence
confidence: high
first_seen: "2026-07-10"
last_updated: "2026-07-10"
notes: "'Cognitive symptoms (brain fog)' needs an entities entry (kind: symptom); id not invented. Definition and prevalence from the Lancet review; objective-mismatch finding from an independent cohort — concordant."