Perimenopause can last as long as 8 years

Perimenopause, which typically occurs in a woman's mid-40s, precedes menopause

Sometimes referred to as the menopausal transition, this time period often lasts around 4 years as the ovaries' production of the reproductive hormones progesterone and estrogen decline. It may be accompanied by mental and physical symptoms including irregular periods, hot flashes, sleep issues, mood swings, and alterations to a woman's sex drive.

Early menopause, occurring before age 45, can be triggered by certain risk factors

Some potential causes of early menopause include autoimmune disorders, chemotherapy, smoking, and certain surgeries that cause the body to produce lower levels of estrogen and progesterone.

What to know about early and premature menopause

Although it's rare, some women may experience menopause early. Early menopause describes women that are menopausal between the ages of 40 and 45. Women that go through menopause before age 40 experience premature menopause. Early experiences of menopause impact under 6% of women, and doctors can’t point to a specific reason why it happens. Learn about what we do know about the conditions here.

Postmenopause is a stage lasting roughly a third of a woman's life

Postmenopause is the final stage of menopause, occurring once a woman hasn't had any bleeding for a full year. She is then considered postmenopausal for the rest of her life. While some of the intense symptoms she might experience during perimenopausal will decline, her risk for certain conditions and diseases will increase.

How menopause affects mental health

Menopause, a natural biological process, occurs in three stages: perimenopause (hormone fluctuations), menopause (end of menstrual cycles), and postmenopause (12 months without menstruation). Hormonal shifts during this time can affect neurotransmitters, increasing the risk of mood disorders.

Late-onset menopause lowers osteoporosis risks, but heightens the risks for certain cancers

Defined as when a woman starts to experience perimenopause after age 55, this delayed menopause onset is linked to elevated risk of developing breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers.

This is what happens to your body during menopause

The menopause transition may begin in one's mid-40s with erratic periods and a decrease in estrogen. It can trigger health complications, including hot flashes, palpitations, and elevated risks of osteoporosis.

Menopause and perimenopause symptoms may affect both the mind and body

Women going through these aging transitions may experience some common physical and mental symptoms to varying degrees, including hot flashes, bladder control issues, brain fog, and vaginal dryness. This article dives into some of the most common symptoms women might expect during perimenopause, plus what they can do to relieve them.

By 2030, roughly 6% of the world's population will be in menopause

An estimated 25 million women pass through menopause annually, with a projected increase in the number of women in menopause in both lower-resource and higher-income populations in the years ahead, highlighting the social and economic value of focusing on menopause care.

Health problems are being misdiagnosed as perimenopause symptoms

Symptoms of menopause and perimenopause (the premenopause period) can be varied enough that clinicians dismiss them in patients in their mid-30s and onward as just a symptom of hormone level change. In this story, a woman's itching was dismissed as a hormonal change, but after two years and 11 separate doctor consultations, was diagnosed as cancer. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Menopause is defined as 12 months without a period

Menopause is officially when a woman stops getting her period, meaning she has stopped ovulating and can no longer get pregnant. A woman has to go a full year without bleeding or spotting to know she has hit menopause.

What is medical menopause?

Medical menopause is when menopause is induced from either surgery or medicine. Chemotherapy and radiation, as well as oophorectomy (a surgical procedure that removes the ovaries) and a radical hysterectomy can cause a woman to become menopausal. Women that go through medical menopause experience the same symptoms as women that experience natural menopause. Learn more about the medical condition here.

Less than 1% of aging studies consider menopause and its effects

Nearly all studies researching the biology of aging don't consider menopause in their setup, in part because menopause is difficult to emulate in animal models. Menopause is uncommon in the animal world beyond humans and whales. This presents a problem for medicine and science because about 75% of aging-related diseases are likely influenced by menopause.

Menopause, once not discussed in polite company, is now a plot point in some television shows

Menopause has long been a topic left out of film and TV. But some shows, like "The Change," and celebrities, like Jennie Garth, are now openly talking about it. This article breaks down how Hollywood is starting to come around to the menopause conversation and how celebrities are talking about their own personal experiences, as well as advocating on Capitol Hill.

'Menobelly' is real, with more fat stored around the abdomen as estrogen levels drop

The way fat is carried in the body shifts with menopause, with those pounds increasingly settling around the abdomen instead of the hips and thighs. Exacerbating this phenomenon, muscle mass also begins to decline, so calories stick around longer than usual. Resistance training, including push-ups and planks, alongside a heavier protein diet can help.

Within months of a landmark 2002 study that indicated HRT harms, sales dropped by about half

In the early 2000s, Women's Health Initiative studies indicated HRT increased risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke in some women—so many physicians stopped prescribing it to help with menopause symptoms. But further research has concluded that much of the elevated risk was overblown and that it was also disproportionately seen in women in their 70s who had been taking an older HRT formulation.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

1 in 15 adults over age 40 experience phantom odors

This phenomenon was measured in a 2018 study that examined the prevalence and risk factors for phantom odor perception. Older adults were less likely to experience these phantom odors as they age, just as their overall sense of smell declines. Women are more likely than men to perceive phantom odors.

MS can damage the brain up to 7 years before symptoms appear

Recent research scouring blood samples from 134 people with MS, both before and after their diagnosis, found that about seven years before these patients were diagnosed, there was a spike in a protein called myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein—indicating disease-associated damage to the protective myelin around nerve fibers.

Schizophrenia symptoms, like psychosis, often first emerge among young adults

A combination of genetics, significant brain changes to the frontal cortex, and hormonal changes during young adulthood—late teens to early 30s—result in schizophrenic symptoms often showing up during this period. The stress of life changes at that age may also be a contributing factor.

The eight habits that could add up to 24 years to your life

A study presented at the American Society for Nutrition's annual meeting revealed that adopting eight healthy lifestyle habits in middle age can significantly increase life expectancy. The habits include being physically active, avoiding opioid...

Due date is calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period—not when sex occurred

The standard counting system considers a woman pregnant from the first day of her last menstrual period, which means someone may technically—for the purposes of measurement—have become pregnant even before she had sex. This standard starting point is used because it reliably marks when the body began preparing for pregnancy—even though it's typically two weeks before conception. On average, most women are pregnant for 280 days from the last menstrual period.

Prolonged Grief Disorder has certain recognizable risk factors

This official diagnosis is characterized by intense, daily symptoms of grief a year after the loss of a loved one among adults and faster—around at least six months—for kids and teens. Factors that put people at increased risk of this disorder include being single, attachment anxiety, violent or unnatural death, low education, low income, and multiple losses, among others.

Simulate the precession of Mercury's perihelion

The location of Mercury's closest point to the sun shifted in the sky at a rate of approximately 0.16 degrees per century, or 0.012 degrees more than what was predicted by Isaac Newton due to the gravity of the other planets. General relativity correctly predicted this shift.

The women's suffrage movement spanned more than 70 years

The fight for women's right to vote formally began at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention and concluded with the 19th Amendment in 1920—a seven-decade struggle led by activists including Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

The first year of retirement sets the financial tone for later life

The "first year of retirement" rule says the 12 months after you retire from your career and leave the workforce can set the tone for the rest of your financial life—so it's important to approach it mindfully.

About 12.5% of US adults experience a phobia in their lifetime, a diagnosis that hinges on the intense fear interfering with daily life and persisting for at least six months.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

Urushiol, the oily toxin in poison ivy, can remain allergenic on clothing for years.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

Firework or sparkler burns, even if they cover a relatively small area of skin, can significantly affect our range of motion.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.