These Facts About Menopause Will Make You Say “Wait, Why Didn’t I Know This?!”

“The buildup to that last period is the perimenopause timeframe, and perimenopause, on average, lasts four to seven years, but it can be one to 10 years,” Adams said.

Meaning with menopause at an average age of 52, perimenopause will start for many people in their mid-40s or even early 40s.

“It’s not necessarily when you’re 55 or 60 that you need to be thinking about this. It could be in your mid-30s that you need to be thinking about it and putting the pieces in place to have that transition go smoothly and go well,” Adams said. (More on that below.)

While there’s a misconception that symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats happen once you reach menopausal age, that’s not the case.

“Perimenopause often is the most symptomatic time, and people aren’t even really aware of it yet. It’s not even on their radar screen,” she added. 

People tend to notice changes to their menstrual cycle, like skipped periods or varying cycle lengths, for example, in addition to hot flashes, night sweats, trouble sleeping, joint pain and brain fog.

“Those are all kind of nonspecific symptoms,” Adams said. You could easily mistake the symptoms of perimenopause for any number of issues that have similar signs. “It could be your thyroid. It could be that you have major depression, and you need to get that treated. It could be you’re developing rheumatoid arthritis … it could be long COVID,” Adams said. Or, it could be perimenopause.

“There’s a lot of different things it could be, but when you have them all together, it’s definitely important that people think, ‘Wow, this could be perimenopause,’” she said. 

If you notice these symptoms, it’s important to talk to your doctor to figure out what’s going on, whether it’s perimenopause or not.

2. More than half of people experience PMI during perimenopause, which is kind of like PMS.