Aging Transitions and Menstrual Cycles - Is this normal?

Am in early 40s. My cycles were clockwork, even during very stressful times during my life.

But, for the last couple of years, my cycles have been all over the place, from shorter, to longer... I do the LH test strips to figure out if I am ovulating and to figure out if I can predict when my next period is coming.

Have been to the doctor, and things seem normal. She tells me my body is adjusting.

I'm considering birth control just so that my periods are more predictable. It's a pain having to guess. Then, sometimes my periods are very short (3 days), and other times they can last 2 weeks. The amount of flow also fluctuates.
Sometimes barely noticeable, other times Niagara Falls.

Cannot get booked with the doctor until the summer (gasp!). She's in high demand.

Any tips?

I think in peri menopause this can happen, it’s like the body shifts gear, I’m in that phase myself although I’m older than you (it happens at different ages for different people). I don’t have any tips I’m afraid other than the old eat healthy one, I guess birth control might help although your doctor would be best one to advise.

Interestingly, my doctor said I was not in perimenopause and she also did not mention birth control whatsoever. She was just like... well... let your body get adjusted. FWIW, my OB/GYN is a woman and older than me, so she's probably been through it herself.

Going from clockwork cycles to guessing cycles is not the greatest of experiences. Blood work has been done, ultrasounds have been done (periodically, as follow-ups)... there does not seem to be anything there that points to an obvious issue.

Your OB/GYN sounds like a pill!

I'm 52 and haven't had a period since December.

I think I"m in menopause now. The last 5 years, my periods were like what you described. Sometimes light, and sometimes like the elevator door scene in The Shining!
Menopause can start as early as your thirties, rarely, but possible. Perimenopause can definitely start in your forties like mine did and linger on forever. There's no test to indicate that you're peri-menopausal.


The thing about hormonal test results is your estrogen and progesterone fluctuate all through the month and it's not an accurate way to test for menopause. The day they took your test, you could have been high and it 'looked' normal. It's one possibility of many.


We have a problem with doctors in the US in that most of them could careless about treating menopause symptoms and want us to just tough it out. My VA doctor was like that. She was the same way, just toughing out the hot flashes. The thing is, HRT is getting better and better and more safer but a lot of them are still stuck in that old believe that it causes cancer and heart issues when the new stuff does not!


I would call around and get a second opinion but ask if the doctor you're seeing is PRO-HRT first so you don't waste your time. My second, non-VA PCM is pro-HRT and was happy to prescribe me the HRT patch for my hot-flashes. They're out there, you just have to find one that's dismissive about it.

I almost forgot. Check out Dr. Mary Claire Haver on TikTok, FB or Instagram. She has a website called The Galveston diet you can google which has a lot of information as well. (i wouldn't buy her book or do her program. You can get a lot of info from just the website or her tiktoks.) I thought I was going absolutely NUTS with all my symptoms and then, the VA doctor told me my tests were fine. Then, I watched Dr. Haver's TikToks about menopause and realized my VA Doc didn't know wth was going on!

Thanks! I'll definitely look into it.

Just to think... Women have been going through this for thousands of years and we still don't know how to make it better. Insane!

And I honestly don't buy that people died younger.... Yes, to an extent, but I've been taking a look at my family tree and most people lived into their 80s-90s, even before the advent of antibiotics.

Women don't matter. This is a result of that. Recently read that in the field of biology, they pretty much never cared about the female bodies. Now a female biologist has discovered amazing things in the reproductive organs of birds. Heck they don't even know why the clit is so far from the v (other mammals is very close to the v) and they don't care. Statistics still say 40% of women admit to "faking it" when it come to sex. I think it's much higher.
Anyway, women are always having to tough it out.
Birth control pills come with dangers you might not want.
I went through something like that around 47, then it stopped entirely around 50 and a few months, called a doctor for a regular appointment and mentioned I was in menopause, and the woman on the phone said "YOU ARE TOO YOUNG FOR THAT". A woman working at a doctors office, saying that, yeah, we don't matter.

I hope things are changing (slowly!) but I look back at what my grandmothers went through and it’s quite humbling- so many labours with little to no pain relief (in the 70s my mother wasn’t even anaesthetised for stitches post birth!). One of my grandmothers went into an asylum in the 1950s for what was almost certainly menopause with no help or support - thankfully we at least have the internet to research what we are going through. For me, understanding is important to how I cope with something.

I agree that it’s really difficult to pinpoint peri menopause because hormone levels will fluctuate, the ‘test’ I had done a few years back said no I wasn’t in peri but yet I know my cycles are different for me. I’d listen to your instinct.

I gave birth in the late 80s in a different country and there was absolutely no pain relief during labor and no anesthesia for stitches after birth. It was the norm.

I would have straight up died back in the old days. My daughter's head got stuck and I couldn't push her out. Had to get a C-section.


I swear, if they put as much research, energy and care into helping women as they do developing drugs for erectile dysfunction, we might have better health care.