Menopause & increased social burnouts

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Anyone else notice a connection between menopause (or perimenopause) and increased social burnouts? Did this improve with time as hormones leveled out?

I notice that I must budget my time around others much more now, or else my brain feels absolutely "fried," and I end up in fogged-out shutdowns. Essentially, I end up with a "social migraine" after being around people for very long. My tolerance for socializing is now extremely brief. This includes telephone convos, too. It's as if I must budget my time around people. It actually hurts when I'm trying to be around people for too long.

Did this ever improve for you after the hormones settled? Thank you for any insights and experiences you may share.

Not sure if my case is because I had some major medical problems and stopped working in an office full time or menopause related. Since all three things kicked in about the same time and my medical problems cause me chronic pain issues, though those are much more under control and something I can deal with. I did notice when I stopped having to be "on" all the time as I was when I was in an office 50 hours a week, my social skills were a bit less polished.

I can't deal with tons of time around other people or I am just done. It does seem to be directly tied to the irritation factor and time duration. IE: high irritation factor (loud people, bad behavior, stressful situations) and the time exposed to them. So I have less of a problem with dealing with other people in a more civilized and pleasant environment than say, going to the grocery store at 5pm. But either one does do me in to some extent. A highly frustrating exchange with someone can shut me down for the rest of the day where I can't adequately regroup my brain and do much of anything productive.

For me things like loud noises are physically painful. Over extended social interaction probably could be described as physically painful. I do hit a point where I just have to be done and go home.

I am not sure if mine got worse due to menopause or some other factor. Right now I have the luxury of being able to pick and choose most of my social interaction. So I avoid the ones that really bother me and don't have some major need or pay off.

Thank you for your input, LillyDale. Perhasps this is just something to apply mindfulness in managing things to prevent social overwhelm. Just interesting that the social burnouts seem to increase with menopause. Considering that shutdowns due to sensory overload as well as meltdowns increase too, I guess I'll attribute the increase of social burnouts to the influence of the wacky menopausal hormones.

Horrendously more-so, social burnouts now, yes. Not settling down yet. I'm at an all-time low in ability to tolerate social overburdening.