I went through menopause in my late 40s and found that my symptoms were worse afterwards. I didn't really know I had bipolar until my early 50s, which was when all the wheels came off the bus. OTOH, I remember being more or less out of my skull in my late 30s-early 40s. My moods and memory loss were so ridiculous that my kids even made fun of me, and I had nothing to defend myself with because they were right! Again, I had no idea that a bipolar diagnosis was in my future; all I knew was that something was really screwy.