Formally, menopause is a period that begins once a woman’s body is done having menstrual cycles. A woman is said to have entered menopause once her body has not menstruated for 12 months, as long as no medical conditions or surgeries can be identified as the cause for the absence of menstrual cycles. Most women enter…

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…