A look at “Integrative literature review – the impact of ADHD across women’s lifespan” by Kati Krebs and Roslyn Donnellan-Fernandez (2025)
We’ve touched on hormones and ADHD a few times in this series: midlife diagnosis in “The Missing Years: ADHD, Midlife and Menopause”, women’s Reddit communities in “What Reddit Reveals About Women and ADHD”, and periods in “Cycles and Concentration: Periods and ADHD”. This Australian review zooms out to look at the whole lifespan, from childhood through pregnancy and parenthood to menopause and beyond.
What it found
The authors searched six databases for recent studies on women and girls with ADHD, published between 2023 and 2025. They included ten studies, five qualitative, four cohort and one mixed-methods, plus one clinical guideline. Five themes emerged across life stages.
- Childhood and adolescence: late diagnosis and early struggles. Girls were often missed or misdiagnosed. By adolescence many were experiencing low self-esteem, anxiety and depression, and some turned to coping strategies such as drinking, self-harm or disordered eating.
- Adulthood: hormones and co-occurring conditions. Women described their ADHD traits fluctuating with their menstrual cycle, often worsening before their period, which affected emotions, organisation and daily life. Many healthcare providers seemed unaware of how hormones might affect medication.
- Pregnancy and early parenthood. One large study found women with ADHD had higher rates of some pregnancy and birth complications. There’s very little research on managing ADHD medication during pregnancy.
- Menopause and later life. Hormonal changes in perimenopause and menopause often intensified ADHD traits, and for some women, triggered their first diagnosis.
- Treatment gaps. There’s a lack of women-specific evidence and guidance. The authors recommend greater provider awareness, routine screening, access to CBT, peer support and neurodiversity-affirming care.
One striking detail: in one study, 64% of women described receiving their diagnosis as life-changing.
A grain of glitter ✨
This review usefully pulls together evidence across life stages, and its recommendations are sensible. But its evidence base is narrow: just ten studies, published within a very short window of 2023 to 2025, which means much important earlier research was left out. Several studies were small and predominantly white. The pregnancy findings come from a study where women with ADHD were also more likely to smoke and use drugs, so not all of the differences can be attributed to ADHD itself. And the review frames everything around “women and girls”, leaving out trans men, non-binary people and others who experience periods, pregnancy or menopause.
Why this matters
If you’re a woman, or anyone assigned female at birth, with ADHD, your experience may shift with every hormonal chapter of life, and that’s not in your head. It’s worth tracking those patterns and sharing them with your GP, prescriber or therapist. Diagnosis can come at any age, and for many it brings enormous relief and self-understanding.
A unicorn’s sparkle may shimmer differently through every season of life, but it never stops being magic.