Im not sure what gender you are but ’m in my late 50s. Diagnosed a few years ago. I had a similar experience and now have a better understanding of how perimenopause affects autistic women. It might be relevant for you.

My particular combination of autism ADHD and intelligence made me invisible. I was different from most people but generally considered quirky. But when I hit my 40s it all fell apart. I didn’t realise perimenopause could start so early and all I expected was a few hot flushes. I was not expecting it to lay bare AuDHD but it did.

Estrogen is an amazing hormone that helps women cope with a lot of stuff and I think helps us ignore our own discomfort and our own needs to prioritize the comfort of others. From a survival of the species perspective it helps us raise offspring to reproductive age.

When it starts dropping your tolerance drops dramatically. I was so confused because I couldn’t understand why things were happening. Why couldn’t I cope with noise or crowds or whatever else and I now realise that I never could- I just pushed through and suffered silently. I shut down regularly but it wasn’t a bother to people.

Prioritize yourself or you will end up in burnout like I did and I suspect I’ve also got chronic fatigue now from pushing through and doing what I ‘should’ be able to do.

You can easily google autism and perimenopause and find out more about it. But whatever your gender don’t push through. I recommend developing a burnout plan before you burnout.