Menopause – Definition

Transcript

Let’s talk about menopause. The average age of menopause in the US is approximately 51 years. But the interesting thing is that the climacteric occurs about 10 years on either side. And we can start to have symptoms of menopause as early as early forties, sometimes earlier. But in the early to mid forties, we start into the climacteric, which is essentially this period of symptoms and maybe some menstrual irregularity that culminates in the final menstrual period. And the final menstrual period starts the clock to one year or 12 months later. And 12 months after the final menstrual period is the actual definition of menopause. So we’ve got the climacteric, which is this symptomatic period all around this timeframe. We’ve got the final menstrual period. And then we don’t really know that was the final menstrual period until 12 months later, when we get the official diagnosis of menopause and then we become post-menopausal. So there’s many terms and definitions for that timeframe, but essentially we know where menopausal when we’ve had a full year of no menstrual periods.