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Original poster

When did peri menopause become a thing?

170 replies

gerispringer · 30/12/2025 17:28

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?

OP posts:
ABeerInTheSunshineMakesMeHappy · 30/12/2025 23:14

Same age as you and my friends definitely talked about it in our 40s, but we didn’t name it peri. The term ‘going through the menopause’ was referred to as the whole thing rather than just being the word for your last period. I think there wasn’t as much awareness of the different issues which menopause can cause, the focus was mainly on hot flushes and difficulty sleeping . What is good now is there is more understanding in many workplaces than there was 10 years back.

ABeerInTheSunshineMakesMeHappy · 30/12/2025 23:22

CaptainSevenofNine · 30/12/2025 18:48

I’m definitely in the age range for perimenopause but have had very few “traditional” symptoms.
2 years ago I started experiencing cyclical back pain. Was immobile at times. Had to crawl to the toilet. When I could walk I walked bent over - like a stereotypical “little old lady” eventually GP suggested trying HRT patches. Within HOURS I was pain free and walking upright again.

I often wish that those bent over ladies I see in their 70s, 80s and 90s had the option of HRT when in perimenopause. They’d be so much better off now.

My mum, who would be 90 this year if she was still alive, was on HRT in the 1990s (possibly the 80s even). It has been around for a long time, but I think there were more side effects to the original HRT as I recall in my 40s there was a lot of emphasis on natural alternatives.

ABeerInTheSunshineMakesMeHappy · 30/12/2025 23:38

dynamiccactus · 30/12/2025 20:39

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.

Oncologists in the breast cancer department in my local hospital very strongly advise against any form of HRT, including the vaginal pessaries for anyone who has had breast cancer.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Menopause Women's health
MILLYmo0se · 30/12/2025 23:40

BerryTwister · 30/12/2025 23:09

@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.

Show quote history

Were the women all checked for breast cancer before starting HRT? Was the body identical form preferred today the one most commonly used then, or was it still the likes of Premarin? Did the study identify which of the women with breast cancer had used combined oestrogen and progestin HRT? Did the rates of breast cancer in women aged 40+ drastically reduced when so many women either gave up or were refused HRT in the years after the study?
Don't get me wrong, I'd be very cautious about going overboard on oestrogen, but I didn't realise that above the norm doses had been part of that study

Funnywonder · 30/12/2025 23:42

LastNightMyPJsSavedMyLife · 30/12/2025 17:32

It was invented the same day as ‘my anxiety’ 🙄

What a fucking stupid, ignorant, pointless, provocative comment. Oh and … 🙄

ttcat37 · 30/12/2025 23:58

gerispringer · 30/12/2025 18:44

Yes of course I had menopausal symptoms, we just called it the menopause without the peri bit tacked on, now it seems to be used all the time. I wasn't being goady, it just wasn't a thing I was aware of maybe I was badly educated on such matters.

“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.”

Sounds pretty goady to me?
It’s not our fault that you didn’t educate yourself. My mother is nearly 80 and talked about peri.

MaloryJones · 31/12/2025 00:14

OverlyFragrant · 30/12/2025 17:31

Better education is not a bad thing.

Just because you lived through the dark ages doesn't mean we have to.

How Ageist you horrid person

OverlyFragrant · 31/12/2025 01:49

MaloryJones · 31/12/2025 00:14

How Ageist you horrid person

Show quote history

Give over

Wishitsnows · 31/12/2025 01:56

My mum is in her 80’s and all her friends talk about about it. Not a new thing just DRs don’t bother with it

CaptainMyCaptain · 31/12/2025 16:06

LorenzoCalzone · 30/12/2025 17:33

Your post comes across as being very dismissive OP.

Perimenopause is no walk in the park. Women aren't "using it as an excuse"

I dont think the OP was dismissive and I'm sure people had the same symptoms but didn't associate it with menopause until their 50s. I'd never heard the words perimenopause until the last few years. I'm 70 but had a hysterectomy at 45 so I never even had the symptoms but never heard anyone in my age group mention it.

Tryagain26 · 31/12/2025 16:09

I am 69 and although it might not have had have a name then i definitely went through it. From my mid 40s I became more emotional, and had aches and pains I didn't had before,
Just because it wasn't called peri menopause doesn't mean it didn't exist!

BinsinBonson · 31/12/2025 16:10

It became a Thing in the media / money spinning opportunity sense just as I turned 40, which was nice.

Then, just in time for my 44th birthday the study about ageing accelerating at 44 came out.

Sparklesandspandexgallore · 31/12/2025 16:16

I haven’t read every post but the menopause lasts for one day. Peri menopause lasts years.
It’s great that some women don’t experience negative symptoms. Just like some women don’t experience pain in labour. Or some babies sleep through the night, every night.
Good for you op.
Some women love being with their children, it’s an absolute pleasure.
So does that mean that every person unlucky enough not to sail through is wrong?
Do not forget women in the past did not work full time until the age of 67. They were privileged in the fact they could retire.
Let’s be completely honest sitting at home in your underwear with the doors open does not and never will compare to having to be at work, in front of people in a formal, business, professional role, ever. Having to wear smart, restrictive business wear and perform complex tasks in a hot office in front of inquisitive eyes is completely different from being able to sit in your arse and nut having to work.
It’s stupid to even consider comparing the two situations.

Coralicious · 31/12/2025 16:35

I’m certain that plenty of people claimed the same thing about PMS when that “became a thing”.

TheToteBagLady · 31/12/2025 16:37

My mum is in her 70s, and I definitely remember her talking about going through “the change”. That is what we now call Peri menopause.

DiscoBeat · 31/12/2025 17:10

Of course it's always been a thing. What's wrong with being better informed?

CaptainMyCaptain · 31/12/2025 17:14

I didn't have any education of any kind about the menopause apart from what I picked up from other people.

TheMerryJoker · 31/12/2025 17:32

since i saw it on Serena Terry aka Mammy Banter youtube vids

NeverDropYourMooncup · 31/12/2025 17:37

When it was noticed that women aged 36-54 had more disposable income. Got to sell them the books and the face creams and the knickers and the tracksuits and the apps and the diet plans somehow; by making it not actually menopause, it creates the 'I'm not old, I'm young' to bring the widest range of higher incomes into the target group.

Next big thing will be marketing to pre-perimenopause. Gets the women in their early 30s who aren't in the new Mum target group onboard and handing over their card details.

MILLYmo0se · 31/12/2025 17:45

NeverDropYourMooncup · 31/12/2025 17:37

When it was noticed that women aged 36-54 had more disposable income. Got to sell them the books and the face creams and the knickers and the tracksuits and the apps and the diet plans somehow; by making it not actually menopause, it creates the 'I'm not old, I'm young' to bring the widest range of higher incomes into the target group.

Next big thing will be marketing to pre-perimenopause. Gets the women in their early 30s who aren't in the new Mum target group onboard and handing over their card details.

Yes perimenopause has been exploited by the marketing teams of skincare, vitamin etc companies as their new 'thing', but they didn't invent the life stage or the ramifications it has for some women

ShawnaMacallister · 31/12/2025 17:47

gerispringer · 30/12/2025 18:44

Yes of course I had menopausal symptoms, we just called it the menopause without the peri bit tacked on, now it seems to be used all the time. I wasn't being goady, it just wasn't a thing I was aware of maybe I was badly educated on such matters.

Menopause was the term used incorrectly to refer to what we now call perimenopause.

ShawnaMacallister · 31/12/2025 17:47

NeverDropYourMooncup · 31/12/2025 17:37

When it was noticed that women aged 36-54 had more disposable income. Got to sell them the books and the face creams and the knickers and the tracksuits and the apps and the diet plans somehow; by making it not actually menopause, it creates the 'I'm not old, I'm young' to bring the widest range of higher incomes into the target group.

Next big thing will be marketing to pre-perimenopause. Gets the women in their early 30s who aren't in the new Mum target group onboard and handing over their card details.

But it's not menopause

Periperi2025 · 31/12/2025 18:04

NeverDropYourMooncup · 31/12/2025 17:37

When it was noticed that women aged 36-54 had more disposable income. Got to sell them the books and the face creams and the knickers and the tracksuits and the apps and the diet plans somehow; by making it not actually menopause, it creates the 'I'm not old, I'm young' to bring the widest range of higher incomes into the target group.

Next big thing will be marketing to pre-perimenopause. Gets the women in their early 30s who aren't in the new Mum target group onboard and handing over their card details.

Oh crap, I've clearly been handling my horrific perimenopause symptoms all wrong at I've been spending all available disposable income on blood tests, private menopause clinics, private endocrinologists, HRT prescriptions (as what i need can't be prescribed by my GP much to her frustration), fuel for the 4 hour round trip to a regional endocrinology centre now that I'm finally under the nhs, ear wax removal after my ears dried up so bad i then compressed all the dry wax down with cotton buds in ever desperate attempts to ease the constant itching, incontinence panty liners, lube (lots of lube) etc etc.

If only I'd known i just needed the right tracksuit and face cream.

firstofallimadelight · 31/12/2025 18:05

I think it was all just menopause then. My mums started late thirties, my sister around 40 and I noticed around 44.

TheIceBear · 31/12/2025 18:11

I hate the way it’s used as an excuse or a reason for everything like on so many threads people are like “oh maybe you are in peri op ?” So irritating. My mam is in her late 70s and had never heard of it she said back in my day we just called the whole thing menopause. I think there is a lot of people cashing in on it nowadays as well with alternative therapies that are probably a crock of shite.