You’ve entered your 40s, and you’re starting to notice that your normally regular periods have been anything but — the flow, the timing, the symptoms — they all seem to be changing and shifting.
Irregular periods are one of the hallmarks of perimenopause, which is the lead-up time before a woman makes her final transition into menopause, effectively putting an end to her reproductive stage. While there’s no exact timeline for perimenopause, it can strike about 8-10 years before menopause, and the average age of menopause in the United States is 52.
At Women’s Wellness MD, our team, under the capable direction of Dr. Chetanna Okasi, helps women navigate every stage of life, including the often bumpy ride into menopause called perimenopause.
In the following, we look at how perimenopause can affect your menstrual cycles and what’s normal and what’s not when it comes to your periods.
The primary purpose of your menstrual cycles and periods is reproductive — your body prepares for a fertilized egg by thickening the lining in your uterus with blood and nutrients. When a fertilized egg doesn't arrive, the uterus lining sheds in your period, and you start the ovulation process again.
The average menstrual cycle in women is about 28 days, but this can fluctuate between 21 and 35 days.
While many women don’t experience any side effects during perimenopause, the most commonly reported change during this stage is irregular periods.
To complete the transition through menopause, a woman shouldn’t have her period for 12 months in a row, which usually means that ovulation has completely stopped.
In the meantime, however, menstrual cycles and periods can become erratic as ovulation gradually winds down. As a result, periods during menopause can become irregular — you can skip entire months or the timing might be different.
Your period length can also change. Perhaps you go from bleeding for a full week to only a few days during perimenopause.
Period flow can change — often from heavy periods to lighter ones, or less often, the other way around. Many women also experience spotting in between periods during perimenopause.
Lastly, if you normally had moderate to severe premenstrual syndrome (PMS), these symptoms might temporarily worsen during perimenopause before they go away altogether after menopause.
As you can see, irregular periods are common during perimenopause and, luckily, not a cause for concern.
While irregular periods are par for the course during perimenopause, there are times when you should see us for an evaluation, such as for:
In these cases, the abnormal bleeding may be a sign of a different health issue that’s not related to perimenopause, such as uterine fibroids.
The bottom line is that it’s tricky for us to say whether the changes in your menstrual cycle during perimenopause are cause for concern or not until we perform a full evaluation.
To set that up and get to the bottom of your irregular periods, schedule a consultation with us today by calling one of our offices in Columbia or Greenbelt, Maryland, or by using our online booking feature.
