Perimenopause - funny?

[tobee]

Apropos of not very much, but has anyone noticed that people (women mostly?) are making jokes or comments about “perimenopause” but not “menopause”? I’m aware it might be because they’re different things and that one is a “thing to go through” and menopause is “the end” and also some words in comedy are funnier than others but it’s like menopause is “a step too far” to be funny. And then you really are “over the hill”.

Or am I just a paranoid post menopausal woman? 😄

Gonna support Grammarnut here, she’s not saying the symptoms don’t exist, but the way we name it has definitely changed. About 10 years ago, I was described by my doctor as ‘going through the menopause’ - an extended process of hormonal changes; no mention of perimenopause then

Perimenopause is the stage when hormones start dropping. Menopause is the 24 hour period after you reach 12 months without a period (or 24 months if under 50) and post - menopause is the stage after that, living without hormones.
You have confused menopause with the stage that proceeds it

Yes 'the change' @borntobequiet !

'The change' has just been renamed the peri-menopause, that's all.

Has always existed. Will always exist.
Just like puberty, but backwards.

You are correct

Menopause is one day. Mine was in April this year didn't even get a card.
I am now post-menopausal.
I was perimenopausal for a few years.

I think people are used to saying "I'm going through menopause" meaning peri, and I imagine many people, especially men in the older generations still think that,

You have low, not no hormones after menopause. I'm post menopausal and still having hot flushes etc

OMFG really?

And to think when I was a teen/student I fantasised about emigrating to the US. Lucky escape as far as I can see.

That said, DH is being headhunted for a job in UAE, so I guess there are worse place.

…and no, the fam would not be accompanying him. Can you imagine??

Is the hot flush/flashes perimenopause or can you get them afterwards? Unlike everything else in my life, I never got around to research any of this. I get them less now, but the bHRT may be helping.

Really.

Apparently it's too controversial for the workplace because there's such division of opinion on the subject so the parent company have taken the line that you can't discuss it in the workplace at all.

I suspect that on a more localised level they allow you to talk to HR in countries were the law recognises it as a disability (they do recognise local law issues).

It's unreal that they are forcing belief it's not real before science on this one.

It's a global company. DH has been shocked by it.

I get it. But it does show the level of battshittery going on all round do to gender identity so now the same respectful types in the middle can't talk about this and how they might support each other.

So is autism on the list because it’s become so enmeshed with trans stuff? The is really bad news as it will mean that autism will get swept under the carpet and people battling with it won’t be able to ask colleagues for support. We’ll go backwards.

Having the term perimenopause gives those of us experiencing pre menopause symptoms a helpful label.

I haven't had the menopause, so dont use that term. My hormones have changed and HRT during perimenopause is helping me.

I don't find perimenopause funny, as hair loss, irritability, flushes, etc. are a PITA.

There are qute a lot of things like this. People think that it's all new that people talk and know about it, but it isn't.

I think this attitude is a sort of artifact of childhood, where there are all kinds of things we don't see adults talk about.

Honestly I am not surprised. If you see some of the batshit stuff that goes on in the autism groups, I understand why employers wouldn't want any of that stuff in the workplace. I know a few people with autistic kids who have stopped being involved in any of the groups because it is so crazy.

Even here on MN, if you say something pretty innocuous that even slightly questions what some people consider the received wisdom, you get attacked as if you kill babies for fun.

No. That's not what I said not my general understanding of the policy.

You know that you're contradicting yourself? Perimenopause is the correct work to describe what you're calling menopause. Menopause is the end point of the process of perimenopause. You're just arguing semantics.

I guess that doctor was misinformed then! Menopause has never been a process. It's probably the word that has been used for the perimenopause state because nobody ever really cares about being accurate about women's matters :/

I understand what @Grammarnut is saying- the language has changed (or at least, the language used by regular people- I can’t speak for the medical community). When my Mum and her friends went through it in the 90s, they talked about ‘going through the menopause’- nobody used the word perimenopause, but they were referring to what most people would call the perimenopause now. They were talking about the whole process- the changes in cycle, mood changes, physical symptoms etc that take place over several years.

Perhaps it’s always been called ‘perimenopause’ in medical textbooks, but I don’t think the average woman used that terminology until more recently.

I still have symptoms, to the extent that I will stay on HRT indefinitely. (Well regarded NHS menopause clinic and GP happy with this. It’s slowly being recognised that some women continue to have discomfort into their 60s and 70s. I had a Mirena fitted to control excessive bleeding when I was 64 - hysteroscopy showed no untoward cause for this).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4834516/

Time you got informed.

And the doctor was ill informed. Quite possibly because their training was missing significant number of wen only health issues.

Sorry was trying to work out what you meant (was a bit late and i was tired when I replied)

Peri is the chaos before the calm that is menopause.

You don’t know when you hit menopause- at least not for 12 months. I made it to ten/eleven months more than once. I still carry sanitary products several years later as I don’t thoroughly trust it!

My GP said I wasn’t menopausal/peri as I wasn’t experiencing the classic symptoms. Which was bollocks. I was experiencing lots of non classic symptoms!

Thank you - to be honest I’ve not really understood when the peri bit is deemed to have passed and you are in menopause - I assumed it was once you’d not had a period for 12m (this was a question my gp asked). But it was at that point I had the most symptoms (mood swings, depression, weight gain, migraines again and lots of hot flashes) so I sort of found the ‘menopause’ state the worst. I do wonder whether it is not so clear cut, which may be what @Grammarnut was getting at?

Oh it's real alright. I can't have HRT for medical reasons so no one was able to make money out of that. Mentally it was truly terrifying and physically it almost killed me when the bleeding caused an iron level of 4 that was even after six weekly transfusions.

Thankfully I'm through it now but in the past I would have been put in an asylum or dead by now. It lasted eight years and completely stole those years of my life instead.

What gets me about this is we know how badly women's health was understood and treated in the past.

We get to a point where the situation has improved (though still a long way to go).

And on the feminist forum of MN someone has the fuckwittery to reply that, because it wasn't treated like this in the past, it's all bollocks and made up nonsense.

Despite the actual medical evidence and science demonstrating the impact on women.

Cos words.

The power of language huh? It's great. Except when it's being used for something that improves lives for women.

(See the current JKR thread for further reading on the subject).