"I can't remember anything - where my keys are, my eyeglasses, I forget appointments with the kids," says 49-year-old Cathy, who began menopause four years ago. "I was shocked by some of the symptoms!" she says. "I'm wondering how long this is going to last and if I'm ever going to get my memory back?"

Rachael introduces her to Shmirshky author Ellen Sarver Dolgen, or E., who was also caught off guard by the experience. "I thought I was going to wake up one day and my period was going to stop and that was menopause. So, no one told me it's a six to 10 year process and that’s called peri-menopause and menopause, and part of what happens is your estrogen levels drop and that causes loss of memory. I mean, there was actually a time [when] I would look at my children and I forgot what their names were."

There are different treatments to help with these symptoms. E. suggests finding a gynecologist who specializes in peri-menopause and menopause. "Find the right partner. You have to decide, if you're living on a scale of 1 to 10 - if you’re on a two and you’re not functioning - what are you going to do? What are your options? And so there’s all kinds of things you can look at starting from the A’s which would be acupuncture, all the way down the road to hormone therapy - but this is something you evaluate with your doctor."