Pre-Menopause Symptoms: Everything You Need to Know About Perimenopause and How to Treat It

glamour.com:

, can frankly still be kind of infuriating. The problem? “It's sort of a retrospective diagnosis,” says , M.D., a menopause specialist and clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale.

Perimenopause (which literally means “around menopause”) is the time when your body's hormone production starts to decline and you begin the transition into menopause. “Perimenopause marks the beginning of a continuum of irregularity and unpredictability with each cycle,” says , M.D., a board-certified OB-GYN and medical advisor for . “The process is gradual and each month brings a full state of flux.

Depending on your ovaries and follicles (technically termed your ovarian reserve) perimenopause can begin in your 30s or earlier.”Most people with ovaries enter perimenopause sometime in their 40s, though some women experience early menopause symptoms as young as their mid-30s. “During perimenopause, estrogen and testosterone levels start to decline in an inconsistent manner, thereby causing a wide range of menopause-like symptoms,” says , M.D., a fellow of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and founder and Chief Medical Officer of HerMD.

In the fallout, irregular menstrual cycles, hot flashes, , mood changes, and impacts on your sex life are all common. “Symptoms may appear gradually over time, although some women can remain completely asymptomatic.” In other words, it's hard to definitively diagnose perimenopause before you officially enter menopause (which starts after you've gone a full year without a period—the average age of which is 51). “Blood work is also not spectacularly helpful during this time,” says Dr.