When did peri menopause become a thing?

[gerispringer]

I’m over 60 so didn’t go through the menopause a million years ago, but I swear peri menopause wasn’t a thing then. Now it seems every woman over 35 is supposedly using it as an excuse for forgetting something, getting a grey hair or loosing their temper. Just when did peri menopause become become a thing?

Imagine living and not understanding what is happening to your body

I think even Dr Louise Newson didn't realise what was happening to her at first! In fact it was that that made her research it and become the expert she is now.

Unlike the so-called GP on this thread who still seems to think HRT causes breast cancer. And the "high" doses are because it doesn't absorb well. The actual amounts getting into a woman's body are much lower.

I've found it pretty much most of the time during my perimenopause, a lot of my symptoms wax and wane. They're not debilitating, but certainly make me feel pretty ropey quite often.

I've had really low hormones levels after my 3rd baby was born in 2020, and my poor old body fell horrible back then, and if anything, weirdly worse than I do now. I remember thinking that if this is what some poor women go through in menopause, no wonder they find it horrendous. All the things I had during my post natal period - burning mouth, dry burning eyes, severe anxiety, horrible flare ups of my movement disorder symptoms, and generally feeling really depressed - made me think about how women who have severe post natal depression could do with possibly having HRT to give them a boost.

Certainly, if my menopause ends up being as severe as when i went through the post natal symptoms, I will consider HRT.

Agree, I was reading about it in my early to mid thirties actually and it was well known then, in the 90s.

I only realised peri menopause was a thing when I reached menopause. I had never heard of it.
It was a "well that explains a lot" moment!
I wish I had known more to understand what was happening at the time.

It's pretty bloody exhausting watching adult women perform the thing tbf

"perform the thing" - what does that mean?

Yes, my poor grandmother was subjected to ECT "treatment". She died aged 62 - I wonder how many of the women who went through this died young.

Wasn’t a good proportion of the middle aged women population on Valium or equivalent 30 years ago? I wonder why…

Diet and lack of exercise has made it worse. Japanese women do not suffer to the same extent. Go figure.

When we started giving a fuck about women’s health?

Because we now use the term correctly. Menopause is when you're haven't had a period for a year. The symptoms previous to this were previously seen as "going through the menopause", now called (more accurately) perimenopause.

None of this was widely published. If you read certain magazines/periodicals/journals you might have known but Shirley Conran was telling you that you could have it all and the internet was in its infancy. Womens health wasn't a priority and in some parts of the world it certainly isn't.

A bit too much, isn't it???
And believe me, you live in darker ages.

‘The menopause’ was used to refer to the whole period. Now it’s more accurately referred to as pre, peri and post.

That was the goadiest OP I've read on here in a good while. Well done have a

You have my complete sympathy @LastNightMyPJsSavedMyLife because mental health issues can be utterly debilitating and life sapping and if you are suffering I am very sorry for you.

Can I please point out that anxiety is a dreadful condition. My dear husband suffered from it some years ago (as the result of stored childhood trauma) and he was unable to work for over a year and had attacks that were so bad that on three occasions he was admitted to hospital because the people around him, including paramedics, thought he was suffering a heart attack. Therapy, determination, love and medication helped him heal and thank God he is his old, happy self again. It is possible to have disabling anxiety.

I wish you well and hope you are getting support. I know how difficult it can be to access help for mental health issues.

Interesting - I thought it meant pre-menopausal.
You learn every day!

It’s certainly a hot topic these days (not saying that’s a bad thing). Lots of TV, radio, podcast coverage, there are even posters in my workplace toilets about it. I’m mid forties and am also finding that women of the same age or younger will enquire if I’m having any peri symptoms (as far as I know, I’m not). I don’t remember my mother’s generation discussing it as much but I do remember a big HRT scare around cancer. A lot of woman of that generation actively avoided medicalising peri/menopause and going to get any help because they were worried about the cancer risk.

When a number of people realised they could make money from medicalising a perfectly normal part of life. And they conned a huge number of women into thinking something is/was "wrong".

So you don't agree with HRT? Should we all just go out and howl at the moon and be thankful with our lot?

Thank goodness for HRT and women now knowing they don't have to wait until post menopause to ask for it, often by which point the damage was done (osteoporosis a prime example).

I do agree that some are cashing in though, particularly the supplements market. All mostly total nonsense and shame women into thinking herbal remedies are better than actually replacing the hormones they need to alleviate their symptoms.

@FrightfulNightfull what do you think? Honestly, do you think my medical degree came from reading the Daily Mail? I’m simply making the point that “peri” has become a fashionable explanation for all women’s symptoms, regardless of their age. You only have to read MN for 5 minutes to see it being suggested as the cause for someone’s pain/unhappiness/stress/depression/fatigue etc etc. Obviously I’m not stupid enough to dish out HRT to anyone, but again, you can see on MN how angry many people are that their GP won’t give them HRT.

HRT has got itself a reputation as a cure-all, and now millions of women want it. They take it for too long and at too high a dose in my opinion.

How far over 60 are you? I'm mid fifties and it's been a thing for ever.

@MILLYmo0se the million women study showed quite clearly that taking large or prolonged doses of oestrogen increased the risk of breast cancer. This seems to have been cast aside in all the guidelines these days, but in my opinion that data had to come from somewhere, so there must be some truth in it. And the biggest celebrity advocate for hassling your doctor for high dose oestrogen has now got breast cancer. Make of that what you will.

@dynamiccactus Louise Newson who lost her accreditation from the British Menopause Society due to her reckless prescribing.