Question from a Member:
Can you go into more detail about menopause and postmenopause? I see a lot of information about perimenopause, but older women are overlooked. Thank you.
In another article, we clarified the terminology related to the periods of women’s lives before and after menopause. Please see the following article on this website:
Clarifying terminology: menopause, menopausal transition, perimenopause, postmenopause
From that article, we should note that postmenopause is the rest of the woman’s life, starting at menopause.
And that natural menopause is the point at which it has been 12 months since the woman had any menstrual bleeding; that is, she has had 12 months of amenorrhea that is due to the normal reproductive cycle and not due to any disease process. In retrospect, that last day of menstrual bleeding was the last day of the woman’s final menstrual period.
Our Member is right: We hear and read a lot about perimenopause, including bothersome menopausal symptoms, an increased risk of depressive symptoms, a spike in cardiovascular risk, and so on. But not much about postmenopausal women. So, on this page, let’s do an overview of mental health and related issues in the postmenopausal period.
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