Perimenopause Ins and Outs

What's cool and what's not

In today’s article, I dive deep into the trends surrounding perimenopause. I’ll explore various aspects that are gaining attention and popularity from my perspective. I’ll also include some resources for additional information.

Additionally, I'll touch upon certain attitudes and myths that I believe are no longer relevant—or “out”—and why it’s important to move past them.

I have so many notes on this. Let’s go!

In!!

The word perimenopause is in. I believe we’ve done a disservice to women, calling the entire experience from wonky periods to no periods “menopause.” I know I’m not the first one who once thought that all menopause symptoms come once you reach menopause. I appreciate that we now use the term “perimenopause” to differentiate the years before reaching menopause. This makes things much clearer. Perimenopause is when the hormones fluctuate the most and cause the most symptoms.

Perimenopause and menopause education and support in the workplace are in. The Menopause Society recently rolled out its new menopause workplace webpage that includes a free downloadable Employer Guide. A study showed that 11% of women missed up to 3 days per year due to menopause symptoms, which translated into costing employers $1.8 BILLION in lost work productivity.¹ Employers can reduce this financial loss by addressing employee concerns and creating policies to support us.

Menstrual cycle awareness is in. Our menstrual cycles hold secrets that many of us have been ignoring since we started our periods. We can learn how our body changes through each of the 4 phases of the menstrual cycle to understand ourselves better and learn how to adapt so that we can work with our bodies instead of constantly against them. Next week, I have a special guest coming, Jess Mujica, from Go With the Flow: Women’s Cycle Awareness, to teach us a bit about this fascinating discovery.

When it comes to menstrual cycles, we’re also reclaiming our data. The top period trackers don’t just track your period; they track you. One of the big ones just released research study findings on MILLIONS of menstrual cycle and menopause data. Others use your personal (but non-identifiable) information on their social media accounts to promote their product. This week, I learned about a new period app, Embody, that doesn’t store your data. You can read about it here on the Future Fem Health Substack (for women’s health innovation news).

Treating your body with respect is in. Fad diets, diet culture, and body image standards are slowly becoming a thing of the past. We’re waking up to the dark side of the wellness industry, and we’re learning how to live within the body we have. We’re also learning that beauty treatments are not the same as true self-care. And we’re taking steps to identify where we may need support, education, tools, and resources.

Making your own healthcare decisions is in. We’re constantly being told we need to be our own healthcare advocate (which I hate by the way), but one good thing that has come out of this is increasing our health literacy by learning about health education. I’ve spent my life studying health since my teenage years, and now I have so many people I can talk to about this. I used to just get the old eye roll. Because we’re more educated, we’re better able to make our own health decisions based on what we think is best for our bodies.

Using perimenopause to rediscover your pleasure is in. Many women reach perimenopause and realize they’ve been feeling blah about life and things that they loved to do. There is a term for this: “anhedonia,” which means losing pleasure in life. We can use this time to evaluate what we like, make changes, and discover new interests. This also includes sexual pleasure. Things down below may not feel the same, so the same things may not fulfill us like they once did. It’s important to rediscover what you like sexually by keeping an open mind and experimenting either with yourself or a partner.

Perimenopause community is in. There are so many options now to find women and people to chat to about perimenopause. I’m a member of Perry, which has its own platform and has free and paid options for community support (I’m Shelbs there). I was also a Perry Guide at Perry, offering 1:1 support and workshops for their worldwide members. However, there are plenty of Facebook groups and other online groups to join. If you’re an athlete, I recommend Hit Play Not Pause Feisty Menopause Facebook group, which combines midlife and athleticism.

I’ve built a large community on Instagram’s Threads and love being there! It's such a fun space where I can chat and answer questions from everyone. Many of my subscribers came from Threads (most recently, West Virginians, I’m looking at you 😁²). But that’s not all; I’ve made some genuine online friends from there, too. Shoutout to fellow Substackers

Amanda Larson

who writes

Find the Extraordinary

and

Jennifer Leigh Jamieson

who writes

Feels Like Yellow

. We connected first on Threads. It really feels like we’ve created our own little perimenopause community where we can support each other and share answers to our questions. It's been very uplifting and a wonderful experience connecting with everyone.

Out!!

Some of these things are still trending, but for me, these things are OUT.

Pellets are out. Pellets are available in the U.S. as a compounded drug, meaning that the FDA has not approved them. Dr. Lauren Streicher, a menopause care expert and GYN, just wrote a brilliant article sharing information about pellets, why she doesn’t recommend them, and the problems she’s seen in her patients who’ve come in for help after experimenting with them. When things go wrong, women are told to see their GYN. Read The Problem with Pellets if you’re considering them.

Using the term “evidence-based” for everything is out. Evidence is important in crimes and medicine. Medical guidelines are based on evidence, but not all evidence is the same. Just because a research study shows something, it does not make it “evidence-based.” Evidence-based is not a marketing term; it’s a scientific term to define the quality of the research, which must meet several criteria. If it doesn’t, it’s called “science-based” or “science-backed.” Very few things in consumer health, wellness, and products I see being called “evidence-based” truly are. It’s a red flag for me.

Defining menopause as 365 days without a period is out. The official definition of menopause is going 365 days without a period which is odd and confusing to me. You can also reach menopause surgically and medically, which I talked about in this article, Neapolitan Perimenopause: The 3 flavors of reaching menopause. Why this group is left out is beyond me. Women still don’t know that a hysterectomy with ovaries being removed will put you in sudden menopause. And, what about women who can’t track their periods because of something like a uterine ablation or hormonal IUD? They are left out too.

Staying silent is out. It’s true that maybe our mothers and grandmothers’ experiences with perimenopause and menopause were different than ours (which I covered in this article, Totally 80s Perimenopause), however historically, women have kept silent on the topic out of fear, awkwardness, and embarrassment. Women were locked up in looney bins if they spoke up or exhibited unusual behavior. Could you imagine having to lock this all down and keep it to yourself? Speaking up is very much in now. Thank goodness.

Fasting and restrictive diets are out. If you haven’t heard yet, the fasting research was done on men and doesn’t translate well to women, especially in midlife. Our relationship with food can be challenging during this time as we deal with new onset weight gain so we have to be especially careful not to “play” with our food. Our bodies need calories differently through our cycle and differently through perimenopause, and by giving it what it needs without stressing it out with fasting and low-calorie diets, we can better support ourselves. If you feel like your relationship with food has become a concern, I highly recommend

Jane Pilger

and her Substack The Peaceful Eater.

Comparing puberty to perimenopause is out. They are not the same. Puberty is about ramping up our hormones and reproduction. Perimenopause is about shutting it down. Yes, our bodies are changing, but not in the same ways and it’s not going in reverse. Different themes, different issues, different experiences. I do not want to be referred to as being in puberty. I’m a grown woman with children for crying out loud.

People who copy and paste health information from the internet to sound like an expert is out. Once you know a topic inside out and upside down, you realize how much bad information about it is out on the internet. These days, we’re lucky if the health information was originally written by a health writer or someone who knows the topic; sometimes, it’s written by the webmaster, and sometimes by a robot. When someone copies and pastes health information without truly understanding what they are sharing, it can spread misinformation.

A Fresh Approach in 2025

It will be fun for me to see where perimenopause leads in 2025. I’m curious to see what new research will be released this year. Of course, as I hear things, I will pass them along to you.

I’m also curious if the onslaught of perimenopause information available will cause overwhelm and information fatigue. We went from no information to too much very quickly. And, unfortunately, a lot of it is unreliable. I would love to do a research project to determine how much time women spend exploring this topic. I know it’s a lot.

I can tell you one thing that’s NOT going to happen in 2025. I won’t be reaching menopause (unless I need medical intervention for whatever reason). I’m turning 55 this year. The average age of menopause is 52 in the U.S.

Need Perimenopause Help?

If you're looking to understand perimenopause better and explore some helpful lifestyle tips for managing it or want to talk to someone who knows what you’re dealing with, consider scheduling an appointment with me to get all of your perimenopause questions answered. Click here to learn more about how I can help you reclaim hours of research on your own!

I'm currently booking sessions for February and March.

As always, thank you for being here with me!

Stay well, be cool…

Shelby Tutty, MHA
Certified Perimenopause Educator
Founder of The Periprofessional, LLC

Disclaimer, Content Use Policy, Privacy Policy

1. https://menopause.org/wp-content/uploads/workplace/TMS-Making-Menopause-Work-Employee-Fact-Sheet.pdf

2. I mentioned on Threads that I have subscribers from 49 states and 46 countries, but I’ve never had a subscriber from West Virginia. What started as a quest to have subscribers in all 50 states ended up being a learning opportunity about a little-known state. I’m now planning a trip there based on everyone’s recommendations. And I can finally say I have subscribers from all 50 states - thank you, WVers! Tudor’s Biscuits for everyone.