Word.ws English Dictionary

perimenopause

perimenopause noun: the physiological stage that women approaching menopause go through when, due to hormonal changes, they progress from their usual pattern of menstruation through a phase of atypical menstruation, and finally cease menstruating. Perimenopause ends when a woman has not menstruated for a year.

Noun

perimenopause (uncountable)

  1. The physiological stage that women approaching menopause go through when, due to hormonal changes, they progress from their usual pattern of menstruation through a phase of atypical menstruation, and finally cease menstruating. Perimenopause ends when a woman has not menstruated for a year.
    • Researchers at eight locations across the United States plan to examine the safety and effectiveness of estrogen therapy during perimenopause, the few years just prior to menopause.2008 March 24, Robert Preidt, “Study to Assess Hormone Therapy Before Menopause”, in ABC News
    • The scientific study of perimenopause has been going on for decades, and the cultural discussion of this mind and body shift has reached something of a new fever pitch, with several books on the subject coming out this spring and a gaggle of “femtech” companies vowing to disrupt perimenopause.2021 April 29, Jessica Grose, “Why Is Perimenopause Still Such a Mystery?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
    Synonyms:
    climacteric

Synonyms of perimenopause

Origin of perimenopause

From peri- (“near”) + menopause. The term has been in use since at least 1931, when it was used in Joseph Bolivar De Lee and Jacob Pearl Greenhill's book, Obstetrics: Gynecology.

Words formed from perimenopause

Questions about perimenopause

What does perimenopause mean?
Perimenopause means the physiological stage that women approaching menopause go through when, due to hormonal changes, they progress from their usual pattern of menstruation through a phase of atypical menstruation, and finally cease menstruating. Perimenopause ends when a woman has not menstruated for a year.
What part of speech is perimenopause?
Perimenopause is a noun.

Words near perimenopause in the dictionary

  1. perimembranous
  2. perimeningeal
  3. perimeningitis
  4. perimenopausal
  5. perimenopausally
  6. perimenopause
  7. perimenstrual
  8. perimenstrually
  9. perimenstruation
  10. perimesencephalic
  11. perimetazine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: perimenopause (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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