The Check-in podcast<\/a>, she sits down with host Leonie Corcoran to explore what perimenopause really means, what symptoms to look out for, and how women can take control of their health across the decades.<\/p>\nUnderstanding the perimenopausal transition<\/p>\n
\u201cMenopause is just your final menstrual period,\u201d explains Dr Hartley. \u201cIf you go a year without a period, you\u2019re postmenopausal. But perimenopause is the transition.\u201d<\/p>\n
During perimenopause, the ovaries begin to function less consistently. Hormone production fluctuates, ovulation becomes less regular, and the reproductive cycle grows increasingly erratic. For some women, that shift comes with physical symptoms, including irregular bleeding, heavier or lighter periods, and increased PMS. For others, it\u2019s emotional or psychological.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe simplest way to look at it is your ovaries \u2013 they produce three different hormones, and they\u2019re responsible for ovulation in your reproductive cycle, and they work in harmony with your brain, which is also producing hormones. And they speak to each other, and it\u2019s a cycle that goes round and round, and that happens throughout most of your reproductive life,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
Menopause is your last ever period. And if you\u2019ve gone a year with no bleeding, you are post-menopausal, and you will stay that way for the rest of your life\u2026 So you have your final period a year later, you\u2019re postmenopausal, and that\u2019s it. In the run-up to that final period, though, we see this change occur.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hormonal rollercoaster<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to get from having regular ovarian function to having no ovarian function,\u201d Dr Hartley explains. \u201cYou don\u2019t just wake up overnight having lost your ovary-brain function\u2026 there\u2019s a turbulent crossing.\u201d<\/p>\n
She describes hormone production as becoming \u201cmore erratic\u201d during this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese big nosedives in hormone production that happen in perimenopause can create a lot of changes in mood and different things,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a very long list of symptoms, and it\u2019s very, very individual.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some women may notice changes in periods \u2013 heavier, lighter, closer together, or more spaced out \u2013 others are more affected by \u201cworsening of PMS-type symptoms.\u201d And yet, there\u2019s no one-size-fits-all marker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr Caoimhe Hartley is a GP and women\u2019s health expert who has spent over 15 years specialising in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49280,98788,103,61,60,129963],"class_list":{"0":"post-285603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-boots","9":"tag-boots-ireland","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-the-image-womens-health-clinic"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}