According to the NIH (National Institutes of Health), perimenopause describes the time in a woman’s life when menstrual periods become irregular as she approaches menopause. This can begin 3-5 years (or up to 10 years) before menopause and is often marked by many of the symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes, mood swings, night sweats, vaginal dryness, trouble concentrating and infertility. Physiologically, perimenopause is marked by erratic fluctuations in estrogen which can last up to 1 O years. Doctors do not have a great test to diagnose perimenopause due to the daily fluctuations in estrogen. One’s symptoms are the key to diagnose here. Did you know that when we are born, we have about a million eggs already stored in our ovaries? By the time we’re 30 we are actually down to about 10% of our egg supply.
Perimenopause: Are you there yet?
