For all the education, emphasis, and preparation regarding a girl’s first menstruation, so little seems to be understood and shared about what happens decades later when she stops menstruating. Perhaps it’s because perimenopause is much less a universal experience; in fact, it’s such an unpredictable period of transition that it can last months or up to a decade.
Called the “ill-defined period” in one medical journal, perimenopause is highly individual because it involves the interplay of not just the two hormones primarily associated with femininity—estrogen and progesterone—but also a host of other chemical messengers that regulate our bodies and protect our health.
