Q:  Perimenopause & BP

I'm extremely interested in the link between the perimenapausal condition and my recent bipolar I rapid cycler diagnosis.  I am 42, had a child two years ago, and was already starting to feel the effects of early menapause.  While I was breast feeding, I had no symptoms, but when I quit, my symptoms hit me like a brick wall.  There must be some correlation, but I can't seem to get my doctors to listen to me.  Am I wrong?
 

Dear Karin -- 
I'm pretty sure you're quite right (of course you're right about your symptoms, they're yours and you're the expert there; but also about your theory, the correlation).  Problem is, this is an almost completely unknown area.  Worse yet, what we do know doesn't lead anywhere, as far as I've been able to teach myself from reading psychiatric literature (and as far as I've learned so far, the OB-Gyn folks aren't any further along, including per a recent conference I attended of theirs, in which one of the leading OB-Gyn endocrinologists, Dr. Speroff, even incurred significant dissatisfaction with his simplistic summaries of PMS).  You can find a summary of what I've gleaned so far on this topic in the Hormones and Mood section of my website -- but "sorry" in advance, it doesn't go anywhere near far enough (including the link to Harvard, which I think you'll find doesn't really go anywhere -- yet -- either). 

Dr. Phelps