Depressed Mood

Insomnia

Difficulty falling or staying asleep, often with night sweats. Its own problem, and an amplifier for every mood effect above it.

Neuroinflammation

Immune activation inside brain tissue. Short bursts are protective. Sustained activation is not, and it limits the very functions the immune cells were maintaining. Estrogen is one of the main brakes on it, which is the mechanistic core of why crashing estrogen has a cost.

Withdrawal Syndrome

The cluster that arrives after stopping, while the natural axis is still shut down: flat mood, no drive, no libido, disturbed sleep, and in some cases suicidal thoughts. Separated from dependence because dependence is about the pull to continue and this is about what happens when you do not. It is the window in which almost all of the serious psychiatric events in the literature occur.

Adult Neurogenesis

The birth of new neurons in the adult brain, effectively confined to the dentate gyrus. It is suppressed by sustained cortisol and by lost deep sleep, both of which these compounds produce, and it is one of the few brain processes that recovers when the insult stops.

Estrogen Receptor beta

The second estrogen receptor, common in brain, bone and vascular tissue. Part of why estradiol is needed for mood, libido and bone density.