What are the commonest perimenopause symptoms?

So what perimenopause symptoms do women really have?

Anthropologist Lynette Leidy Sievert reviewed 24 studies of perimenopausal symptoms in different populations of middle aged women around the world.

The populations of women came from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Phillipines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

In these studies the top 4 complaints experienced by women in the 2 to 4 weeks before they were interviewed were recorded.

Guess which symptom was most often in the top 4 complaints?

Was it hot flashes, flushes and night sweats?

NO !

Surprisingly, hot flushes, flashes or night sweats came into the top 4 complaints in only 6 of the populations studied (Canada, Finland, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and UK).

In fact...

The most common perimenopausal complaint of all was HEADACHES!

Then came joint problems, irritability, lack of energy and nervous tension.

And just look at the range of problems included in the top 4:

• dry skin,

• backache,

• forgetfulness,

• problems sleeping,

• aching or stiff joints,

• lack of energy,

• nervous tension,

• headaches,

• hot flashes,

• tiredness,

• dizziness,

• irritability,

• depression,

• insomnia,

• vertigo,

• palpitations,

• shoulder stiffness,

• constipation,

• lumbago, fatigue or weakness,

• impatience,

• anxiety,

• memory loss,

• night sweats.

Data from Leidy Sievert L. Menopause, a biocultural perspective.Rutgers University Press, New Jersey, 2006.

So what do all these symptoms mean?

Are they really all due to the menopause and can they really be called perimenopause symptoms?

In fact very few of the common midlife discomforts are definitely caused by the biological process of menopause.

Many of them are just symptoms of aging and men get them too, and others occur at midlife because other life changes are happening then too.

You can read more about the evidence that midlife discomforts are due to menopause here.

So where does this leave all of us bemused middle aged women?

It's the end of the first decade of the 21st century and medical science still doesn’t have a clear cut, unambiguous and non-controversial understanding of the time around when our periods go topsy turvy and then stop altogether.

Yes, normal human female physiology and medical science hasn't got a grip of it yet.

Makes you think doesn’t it?

Published January 2010. Updated 9/5/2010

Go from common perimenopause symptoms to Home