I did not have an understanding of menopause until I was through. I thought menopause was actually what peri is, that there'd be this several year period of time when I would be going "through" menopause. But going through menopause turned out to be just the last year, the period of time when you have to have no periods to know you are "finished". I'd not have a period for 3-4 months, then have one, then another, then miss for 6 months, then have one. When you get older they ask when was your last period, so don't "memorize" the date you were finally through (a year later) but the date of your last period. It gets confusing :-)

My peri I realized was there in my mid-40's when I got slightly depressed and my emotions did a few things that I took note of where I hadn't before. I likened it to how it was when I first got my period, you know those early teen to 20-something years where you are getting use to how you respond now as a woman? In my mid-20's I was always hit hard a day or two before my period emotionally, would get almost suicidal, etc. and the pain would be the worst the first day, etc. Well, this "came back" but in a much much lesser degree in my mid-40's. My mid-40's was like an echo of my mid-20's.

My periods started when I was 13 and my last period was when I was 49. I had maybe 3 night sweats in the time between 39 and 49 and I don't recall many hot flashes either. My biggest problem, I guess was the emotions and how they are "you" and what you live with and you can't know they are different from your "normal" unless you think about it and plot your periods/emotions relative to them, etc. I had a funny response, I'd crave beer a night or two before my period would start :-) and that was not fun, often being hung over a bit the same day I got my period. But most of my signs and signals were subtle and took quite a bit of detective work to figure out patterns and prepare for them better, know when it was "just" my period coming, etc. But your sleep might get disturbed or you might sleep "harder" or all sorts of shifts as your hormones shift. Everyone is individual so you'll be the only one to know what might be going on that is related versus what is your previous "normal". Remember being a teen and what was "different" from when you were a kid? It's like that.