What is perimenopause, and how do I know if I am in it?
Perimenopause is the transition leading up to menopause, when hormone production becomes erratic rather than simply lower. It commonly begins in the forties and can start earlier. Periods may still be regular. The clearest signal is usually not a test result but a cluster of changes — sleep, mood, cycle, temperature, memory — arriving together.
The word people know is menopause, which is a single point in time: twelve months after a final period. Perimenopause is the years before it, and it is where most of the symptoms actually live.
What makes it hard to recognise is that hormones do not decline smoothly. They swing. Estrogen can be higher than it has ever been one month and low the next, which is why the experience is so often described as unpredictable rather than simply reduced. It is also why a single blood test on a single day rarely settles the question.
Common changes include disrupted sleep, new anxiety or irritability that does not match the circumstances, cycles that shorten or lengthen, heavier or lighter bleeding, temperature changes, joint aches, skin changes, and a kind of mental static people describe as fog.
Being told you are "too young" is one of the most common things I hear. Age is a probability, not a rule.
Related
- Can perimenopause start in your thirties?Being told you are too young
- What does bioidentical hormone therapy actually mean?Bioidentical hormone therapy
- How do hormones affect skin as you age?Estrogen and skin ageing
Nurse Niki AI & this site provide general information, not medical advice. More from the library