{"id":3313,"date":"2026-10-08T21:46:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T13:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/08\/new-research-suggests-self-gaslighting-is-keeping-women-from-recognizing-perimenopause\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T21:46:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T13:46:50","slug":"new-research-suggests-self-gaslighting-is-keeping-women-from-recognizing-perimenopause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/08\/new-research-suggests-self-gaslighting-is-keeping-women-from-recognizing-perimenopause\/","title":{"rendered":"New Research Suggests \u2018Self-Gaslighting\u2019 Is Keeping Women From Recognizing Perimenopause"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"block-content\">\n<div class=\"article-segment\">\n<p class=\"text-md mb-6 leading-relaxed text-gray-500\">When women post about perimenopause on social media, hot flashes aren\u2019t what comes up most\u2014at least according to new research from Wisp, a women\u2019s telehealth provider that serves more than 2 million patients in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-md mb-6 leading-relaxed text-gray-500\">The study was conducted independently by researcher Dr. Emily Pfender and funded by Wisp. It analyzed 269 TikTok and Instagram videos about perimenopause and menopause. Mental health issues were the most discussed symptom, appearing in 40.6 percent of the videos. Next came sleep issues (28.2 percent), weight gain (21.2 percent) and brain fog (20.7 percent). Hot flashes, the symptom most associated with menopause, ranked fifth at 18.9 percent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-segment\">\n<p class=\"text-md mb-6 leading-relaxed text-gray-500\">Ahead, how women talk themselves out of their symptoms and the early signs of perimenopause to watch for.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"women-are-second-guessing-themselves\" class=\"font-canela mb-4 mt-8 text-2xl font-light leading-tight text-black md:text-3xl\">Women Are Second-Guessing Themselves<\/h2>\n<p class=\"text-md mb-6 leading-relaxed text-gray-500\">The researchers also looked at what they called \u201cdisenfranchised talk,\u201d meaning content in which women\u2019s health experiences are invalidated. Among the posts that contained it, 56 percent included discrediting, a category that covers self-gaslighting: women questioning, minimizing or dismissing their own symptoms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-md mb-6 leading-relaxed text-gray-500\">\u201cResearch on medical disenfranchisement typically focuses on interpersonal interaction, such as conversations with family members or healthcare providers, that invalidate women\u2019s health experiences. In this study, my team found that women question or dismiss their own symptoms related to peri\/menopause through self-gaslighting,\u201d Dr. Pfender says. \u201cThese findings underscore the need for greater support and education around women\u2019s health to validate women\u2019s experiences and strengthen their confidence when something feels off.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"symptoms-that-are-easy-to-explain-away\" class=\"font-canela mb-4 mt-8 text-2xl font-light leading-tight text-black md:text-3xl\">Symptoms That Are Easy to Explain Away<\/h2>\n<p class=\"text-md mb-6 leading-relaxed text-gray-500\">Perimenopause, the transition years before menopause, often doesn\u2019t look like the stereotype. Early signs can include waking at 3 a.m., more anxiety than usual, losing your train of thought or changes to your period or body. All of these are easy to blame on stress, screens or age.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When women post about perimenopause on social media, ho [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}