What is perimenopause?
Perimenopause is the time leading up to menopause when you start to notice menopause-related changes–plus the year after menopause. Perimenopause is what some people call “being in menopause” or “going through menopause.” But menopause itself is only one day–the day you haven’t had a period for 12 months in a row. During perimenopause, your ovaries start to shut down, making less of certain hormones (estrogen and progesterone), and you begin to lose the ability to become pregnant. This change is a natural part of aging that signals the ending of your reproductive years.
For some women, there will be no warning before menopause- their periods will simply stop. But most will go through a phase of erratic periods before they reach menopause. Periods will get further apart, or occasionally closer together. This phase is called the ‘menopausal transition’, or ‘perimenopause’, and it can last for several years. Perimenopause is defined as the time period from when a woman’s menses first become irregular until one year after menopause. Perimenopause is when most women will experience the symptoms of menopause.
Perimenopause means that a woman is beginning to experience some of the estrogen deficiencies that exist during menopause. Usually this means that you will experience hot flashes once a month or even once every three months. Most of the time your system will function adequately, but the loss of bone, collagen, and memory has already begun. In addition, with the advent of the perimenopause, you begin to loose the ability to become pregnant. There are always exceptions so you should not despair when the hot flashes begin for the first time. Many women in their early forties can become pregnant with the help of infertility assistance or even spontaneously on their own. Usually most women experience the perimenopause approximately 10 years before they actually enter menopause and they may benefit from treatment with estrogen replacement very early in this transition. If it is determined that your periods are lighter and you are beginning to loose bone or to experience many of the severe mo
Perimenopause occurs when there are changes in the levels of the hormones that regulate a woman s menstrual cycle. It is the time when periods become irregular or missed. Physical and emotional conditions such as hot flashes, interrupted sleep, mood swings and depression, short-term memory loss, unexplained fatigue, and vaginal dryness can happen. Fatigue (or lack of energy) is often one of the first signs of perimenopause.
