Dr. Tabatha Barber explains menopause as a full year without a period and perimenopause as the chaotic transition before it, marked by irregular periods, mood swings, and night sweats. She pushes back against the idea that 10-15 years of misery is normal, arguing that hormonal chaos is treatable, not inevitable.
Ladies, if you haven't listened to those, I highly recommend because Tabatha really breaks it down into 3 different episodes and answers this question. But can you just give us a high level, like, what is menopause, what is perimenopause, and why do people, women, just feel completely unprepared for these seasons?
Menopause simply means you have gone a year without your period because your ovary factories have shut down. They're no longer producing an hormones and ovulating. And when you hit the year mark, that has been considered the definition of you're in menopause. And perimenopause is this blanket term that is supposed to describe the time before that transition, before menopause. You might start to skip a period, or they might come a little closer together. You might have some mood swings, um, or more PMS. Some night sweats. Love y'all, but that's not perimenopause. I'm just going to tell you the truth. We call it that so that women finally feel like they're understanding what's going on and they're feeling heard, but the truth of it is it's hormonal dysregulation. You're in chaos. You are in chaos for multiple reasons. This is not normal. Just because we are all experiencing it does not make it normal, okay? That is a really important important thing, because now what I'm seeing in this social media trend that's taken over is, oh, thank God, I understand what's wrong with me, I'm just in perimenopause. And then they live in misery for 10 to 15 years. Don't sign up for that lie. That's crap. No, you don't. You are in hormonal chaos because of what's going on in your environment and how it's affecting your body.
