Sleep Screener: Is it menopause fatigue, or is it your breathing at night?

Sleep apnea in midlife women is common and widely missed. It shows up as exhaustion, brain fog, morning headaches, waking to pee and a shorter fuse, the same symptoms that get filed under menopause.

Progesterone drives breathing and estrogen helps keep the airway toned, so risk climbs as both fall through the transition. STOP-BANG is the eight-question screen clinicians use worldwide. This version reads your score twice: once against the standard cutoffs and once against cutoffs calibrated for women.

About two minutes. Your answers stay in this browser window and are never sent anywhere.

The STOP-BANG screener

Interpret with caution

STOP-BANG was built and validated mostly in men. Women with apnea more often report the symptoms below.

Check any that apply.

Your result

0 / 8
0 of 8 answered
Calibrated for womenYour scale
Standard cutoffsReference
Low Intermediate High
Book a sleep and hormone consult

This screener estimates risk. It does not diagnose sleep apnea, and a low score does not rule it out. Diagnosis requires a sleep study, which can often be done at home. If you have fallen asleep or nearly fallen asleep while driving, stop driving drowsy and seek care promptly.

Evidence behind this tool:

  1. Chung F, et al. STOP-Bang questionnaire: a tool to screen patients for obstructive sleep apnea. Anesthesiology, 2008. Original instrument.
  2. Bauters FA, et al. Sex-specific sleep apnea screening questionnaires. Sleep Medicine, 2019. Lower cutoffs perform better in women.
  3. Mayo Clinic midlife women cohort. Maturitas, 2020. In midlife women, a score of 3 or more caught 77% of moderate to severe apnea; observed apnea was the most sensitive single item.

Recalibrate Women's Wellness · Kailia Wray, CNM, APRN · recalibrateher.health