My mother is 50 and has been acting strangely. She feels stressed constantly, gets irate and yells. This only started about two months ago. She keeps telling my father that he need to see a counselor, but he is fine. She gets mad if he doesn?t' do everything she says. She forgets things and misplaces things. I am worried. Could this be menopause? She has her period all the time.

D.D.

Menopause is certainly one possibility to explain your mom's behavior. Mood changes, including sadness, depression, irritability or anxiousness are common as women go through menopause. Short-term memory loss -- your basic forgetfulness -- is also fairly common. Hot flashes and night sweats can lead to sleep disturbances, which exacerbate the moodiness and forgetfulness. As a woman enters menopause, most often her periods get farther and farther apart until eventually they disappear; sometimes they come more frequently, but this must always be investigated.

Not all emotional symptoms in women, however, should be chalked up to hormonal imbalance. It's possible that your mother may be under too much stress at home and/or work, and she has finally reached her limit. There may be problems and anxieties you are unaware of. She may be depressed. She may be anemic or have an underactive thyroid.

No matter what the cause of your mother's new behavior, she does not have to live with it. If it is menopause, she can speak with her doctor about different options to deal with her symptoms. If it is another medical condition, appropriate treatment should bring back your "old" mom. If family and other stressors are the cause, counseling -- or even just making everyone aware of the problems so that they can pitch in to help around the house, for example -- can help.

Encourage your mom to seek medical attention. Given her age and the likelihood that this is menopause, her gynecologist would be the appropriate person for her to see; she needs to get the almost-constant bleeding evaluated in any case.