Menopausal Transition

The science of Menopausal and know what to expect

The menopausal transition, or perimenopause, is associated with profound reproductive and hormonal changes. These changes have been well chronicled and matched with concomitant symptoms. The pattern of appearance of menopausal symptoms and their natural history have become increasingly clear thanks to the conduct of several long-term, longitudinal cohort studies that have examined many aspects of women’s biology and psychology through this time of life.

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The perimenopause is an ill-defined time period that surrounds the final years of a woman’s reproductive life. It begins with the first onset of menstrual irregularity and ends after 1 year of amenorrhea has occurred, thereby defining the final menstrual period (FMP). There are two stages to the perimenopause or menopausal transition: the early transition, where cycles are mostly regular, with relatively few interruptions, and the late transition, where amenorrhea becomes more prolonged and lasts for at least 60 days, up to the FMP.

Several worldwide cohorts have defined the natural history of the menopausal transition in sufficient detail such that these stages have been broken down and linked to specific hormonal events, which in turn are linked to symptoms. The purpose of this review is to integrate the research findings with the clinical presentations…