The perimenopause

I am becoming slightly obsessed with the peri-menopause. I suppose it's inevitable once you hit the wrong side of forty, but every time I forget anything I wonder whether it could be a sign of menopausal memory loss. My obsession started when I was writing my last book The Complete Guide to Female Fertility , and became aware that I was on the cusp of a new phase of life which would begin with irregular periods and would mark the end of my fertility with such delights as hot flushes and hair loss... Sometimes, there are things I wish I didn't know...

But seriously, what is the perimenopause and how do you tell if you are entering it? It's the phase leading up to the menopause itself (which is said to occur when you haven't had a period for a year), and can last anything from a matter of months to a worrying ten years. I found a long list of symptoms here , but I'm trying to remind myself that not everyone has all these symptoms, and some women sail through the whole thing without really noticing it.

More worrying than the perimenopause, which will come to us all eventually, is premature menopause, which can occur at any age and affects about one in every hundred women. If you're trying to get pregnant, early hormone tests should reveal this fairly early on, but premature menopause does sometimes go undetected, and if you have irregular periods or other menopausal symptoms, make sure you've had the right hormone tests. It does sometimes run in families, and if your mother had an early menopause, tell your doctors about this. Fortunately, there is an excellent support group for women who have experienced an early menopause, The Daisy Network , who can provide information and advice.