Perimenopause Research

This research documents how bothersome symptoms interfere with our daily activities and relationships and contribute to “not feeling like ourselves”. Interestingly, not feeling like myself” was not associated with vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes and night sweats). We wonder if this is because these are symptoms well known to be associated with the path to menopause. Whereas a new experience of other symptoms (brain fog, volatile mood, fatigue and pain and anxiety/vigilance) is less well known to be possibly associated with the path to menopause and therefore hard to attribute, and possibly of more concern. This is why we think it’s so important to have accurate expectations about the range of experiences that are part of the path to menopause. When we know what to expect, it can lessen surprise, concern and suffering.

It was published online ahead of print on November 2, 2022, and in the Jan 2023 issue of Menopause, the Journal of the North American Menopause Society.

We were curious about people’s experience with symptoms while periods were still regular — before noticeable menstrual cycle changes. This is referred to as the Late Reproductive Stage in the research literature. Our collaborator, Dr. Woods suggested a “scoping paper” to determine what previous research had been done about this stage. This involved searching many scientific literature databases from 2000 to the present. What we found were only 9 research papers mentioning the Late Reproductive stage. Other research studied women of Late Reproductive age. In most research, the Late Reproductive Stage was used as a baseline or comparator stage for changes that came later on the path to menopause. We felt there was value in looking at this stage on its own and this scoping review further confirmed this as little was known from previous research.

Open Access.