How to Know When Menopause Is Over

Menopause is not a single event. During menopause, a series of biological changes occur over the course of several years.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Understand that you've reached the end of menopause when you've had 12 consecutive months without any type of menstruation.
2. Expect that menopause is over when you are free from many of your menopausal symptoms. This is because your hormones are back in balance.
3. Visit your doctor. He will do a thorough medical exam to determine if you are through menopause and to detect any physical changes that occurred during that time.
4. Know that he may tell you to consider any number of preventive or therapeutic treatments (like estrogen replacement therapy).
5. Have your levels of circulating follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) measured with a simple blood test. You are still menopausal if your levels are 40 mlIU/ml.
6. Understand that the process of menopause can take from 6 to 13 years.

Tips & Warnings

• To learn more about the health issues related to being postmenopausal, visit Thirdage (see Related Sites), which has lots of information for people 40 years of age and older.
• It is possible for you to become pregnant until you are postmenopausal. That means, until you have gone 12 consecutive months without a period, you are potentially fertile.
• This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment.