what is meant by perimenopause vs menopause?

[Snoopybird]

I’m late 30s now so am curious what’s coming my way.

Up until recently I thought menopause was when you get the hot flashes, disrupted sleep, weight changes, forgetfulness, erratic periods etc, and stopping your periods meant the end of menopause.

But recently I am reading and hearing about perimenopause, and the signs of that sound a lot like what I thought actual menopause was. So is menopause the part AFTER your periods stop?

Can anyone explain please?

Menopause is defined as when you have yoir last ever period. Medically it is accepted that you are post menopausal if you haven't had a period for a year but theoretically a womb could be crazy and stop for 12 months then choke out one more but that would be vanishing rare - cases with a gap of 3-6 months aren't rare as things slow down. So actual menopause is a single day - the last day that a bleed is triggered.

Perimenopause is the long period before and after while everything is changing which includes the hot flushes and hormonal imbalances and irregular periods and all the other things that happen.

The peri menopause is the time that society refers to as the menopause then - hence the understandable confusion!

Thanks for the clear explanation!!

Perimenopause is the shit bit, think back to going through puberty and things going a bit haywire and you're on the right track...

I believe the menopause is when you have had a complete year without periods (over 50) or 2 years under? The exception being people with things like PCOS (?)

The symptoms don't just start after your periods stop, it's a slow run up which can be upto 10 years before.

Thing is you can't know until you have stopped for a year so it all feels a bit nebulous.

For what it's worth - my periods spread out for a few years (3 months apart) until suddenly they never came again at 51. No big fanfare, I have anxiety anyway so no idea if that is worse and in summer I get hotter at night. I think I have been very lucky. No idea if I have more to come (I'm 54).

Menopause - NHS

Yeah, once upon a time, not too long ago, the menopause (or the change) covered the whole run up to the stopping of periods. Now that part is (correctly, but a bit confusingly) described as perimenopause and then once you have had the final period, you are in post-menopause,

Like antenatal care and post-natal care, I guess!

Menopause never stops, you are in that state forever as you never get the oestrogen back. Some women stop having symptoms, or their body gets used to them. Some women carry on with symptoms, or the symptoms catty on arriving. My periods stopped at 52 but I had a couple iof new debilitating symptoms at 56. For me all symptoms were relieved by HRT.

In perimenopause hormones in your body vary from hour to hour it seems, so it's more of a whirlwind. I only had psychological symptoms during peri ( apart from itchy ears and gum disease!) More physical symptoms ( vertigo, vaginal atrophy) didn't start until much later. I've still never had a hot flush.

Perimenopause is the bit everyone hates and the stage you'll hear most about in the press. Menopause/postmenopause is when your status quo is reached and periods have stopped for more than a year if over 45 or 2 years if under. If you can remember puberty, perimenopause is like that but twice as bad and in reverse and takes longer.

I know what you mean and I think the confusion comes from the difference between the strict medical meaning of the terms and the way most people think about it.

Yes in strict medical terms menopause is a fixed point in time where your period stops. And perimenopause is the time leading up to that.

But in common parlance, "menopause" just means all of that time, all of the hot flushes and atrophy and aching bones and anxiety and everything else which may happen to you. It's common to hear women talking about going through the menopause, or similar when they really mean perimenopause. And then you have women like me who have had a hysterectomy and obviously no periods and are having all the symptoms and but can't say which stage they're in.

I just think it's really positive that women ARE talking about it a lot more.

Thanks for the explanations. Glad it’s nit just me being stupid - it really IS confusing.
There are posters all over the ladies toilets in work about Menopause listing all the symptoms of perimenopause.

Thank you! Not long ago I posted on a similar thread to say that I kept seeing the word "perimenopause" on Mumsnet and that I hadn't been aware of it before. I was torn to shreds and ridiculed. I'm in my late sixties and my peer group would've only ever said "menopause" (or the change) as did my mum and her mum before that.

I feel my Mum's generation called it going through the menopause. When people started to use perimenopause it seemed to refer to those in their early forties with regular periods who were starting to get symptoms. I'm very confused too!

’Peri’ as a prefix means around, surrounding, or near. Think perimeter, as another example. So perimenopause means around or near to menopause. The symptoms of declining oestrogen are starting and ramping up in the years before you go a year without a period and can be officially menopausal.

I guess technically the day after a year you are post-menopausal, but to say menopause is strictly only that specific moment feels nonsensical!

Can I ask why if so many people suffer with the symptoms why don’t they go straight on hrt? Unless breast cancer risk.

My GP told me that I couldn't be perimenopausal if I still had regular periods, even though I had other symptoms. Then she put me on the pill, which obviously regulates my periods, so now I have no idea what's going on.

Hello
I haven’t had my period for quite a few months now. Also since end of last year been getting skin problems on my body and itchiness. Is that normal during menopause?