My own symptoms of perimenopause began while I was still getting a monthly period. My health care providers did not see them as connected to hormonal changes, as the research at the time hadn’t established a possible connection. Yet I felt sure something physiological was different.
As I began to do my own research and surveyed others, I discovered that some women experience changes in menstrual cycle length and flow, verbal recall, sleep, mood, cramps, and headaches while they are still menstruating regularly.
This led me (and my partner at the time) to create Women Living Better, a website about perimenopause, particularly the earliest part. The site offers clear information about what happens in our bodies, what causes common symptoms, and what we can do to feel better. More recently, my research collaborators and I have built on the initial knowledge collected on the site with a much larger survey. We’ve published our findings from that survey so that future research will focus more on this earlier part by including younger participants.
Because it’s difficult to find good information on the part of perimenopause when periods are still coming monthly (but cycles are shortening), we have wanted to make the content on our site available to women in other languages. I am delighted to announce that, with generous support from Our Bodies Ourselves and the help of many wonderful translators, the main content from Women Living Better is now available in Spanish and Armenian!
We want to thank the many people who worked on this project. For the Spanish site, our gratitude goes to Erika Barriga, a medical assistant at the Menopause Clinic at Atrius Health, and to Yamnia Cortés Ph.D., a WLB advisor and research collaborator for their translation work.
For the Armenian site, huge thanks go to Dr. Meri Khachikyan, an ob-gyn who specializes in reproduction and the founder of St. Mary’s Family Health Center in Yerevan. Dr. Khachikyan’s team translated the content into Armenian. (Her organization, “For Family and Health” Pan-Armenian Association, also published an Armenian adaption of “Our Bodies Ourselves” in 2010)
I would also like to thank Jordan Atchison, CMO of Corkboard Concepts for providing technical guidance, Cara Guappone for UX expertise and site assembly, and Judy Norsigian, a founder of Our Bodies Ourselves, who supported this project every step of the way.
The new Spanish site can be found at: https://es.womenlivingbetter.org.
The new Armenian site can be found here: https://am.womenlivingbetter.org.
