Which menopause phase are you in? The 5 stages explained.

You might be in perimenopause and not even realise it.

Most women don’t know that perimenopause happens in distinct stages, and by the time they start experiencing symptoms that feel impossible to ignore, they’ve already been in it for years.

So, how do you know where you are in the perimenopause transition - and what’s coming next?

If you’ve been feeling off but can’t pinpoint why, or struggling with more PMS, heavy periods, mood swings, or energy crashes, this episode will help you figure out which stage of perimenopause you’re in and what your body needs from you right now.

Key Takeaways:
• 5 stages of perimenopause explained: If you think menopause happens suddenly or overnight, you’re missing the opportunity to feel great through your 40s and 50s. Perimenopause is a gradual transition, and understanding it helps you take control.
• The early signs most women dismiss: You don’t have to wait until your cycle is completely irregular or symptoms are unbearable to do something about it. Recognising the first shifts can make all the difference.
• How to support your body in each phase: Whether you’re dealing with worsening PMS, unpredictable periods, or feeling like a stranger in your own body, knowing what’s happening under the surface will help you feel more in control.

Sneak Peek:
“We kind of think we go from reproductive to menopause, like you’re not in it and then suddenly - bang! - you’re in menopause. But it doesn’t happen that way. It’s a bit more insidious. Perimenopause is a gradual transition, and we often miss that whole gradual part until things start happening more for us.”

Your body is changing. When you understand where you are in the journey, you can make choices that will work to help you feel better.

Links & Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

• Download The Perimenopause Decoder
• Episode 68: Is it dementia?
•

Find out more about Sarah, her services and the Freebies mentioned in this episode at https://www.ThePerimenopauseNaturopath.com.au

• The Perimenopause Decoder is the ultimate guide to understanding if perimenopause hormone fluctuations are behind your changing mood, metabolism and energy after 40, what phase of perimenopause you're in, and how much longer you may be on this roller coaster for.
• For more, follow on Instagram at @theperimenopausenaturopath.

WORK WITH SARAH THE PERIMENOPAUSE NATUROPATH:

• PerimenoGO (because who wants to pause anyway?!) A self-guided program to help you reverse weight gain, boost energy, and reclaim your mood — without extreme diets or cutting carbs. Perfect for women who want a realistic plan that fits around kids, work, and actual life.
• The Chaos to Calm Method: A 1:1 personalised program for women who want a more personalised plan and support — especially if you’ve got 10kg+ to lose, other health issues, or feel like your body’s just stuck. Includes comprehensive blood testing and analysis, Metabolic Balance ...

Transcript

If I were to tell you that perimenopause isn't just one big hormonal mess, but actually happens in distinct stages, would you believe me? Did you know that? Most women have no idea that there are clear phases to perimenopause and understanding which one you're in can be the difference between feeling really lost.

And overwhelmed and out of sync with your body and knowing what your body needs from you to better adjust to the changes. And so you can feel more in control, more comfortable in your body there. So it's a small thing, but a big thing. So stay tuned until the end, because I'm going to be sharing a free guide that's going to help you pinpoint exactly where you are in your perimenopause journey. journey, how long you might expect to be in perimenopause and what you can do to support your body through this transition. And this is really important if you are say in your mid to late thirties, early forties, and being told that you're too young for perimenopause like we talked about last time, this episode's really important for you because it's going to give some clarity around whether or not you're in perimenopause.

So if we haven't met, Hi, I'm Sarah, the Perimenopause Naturopath, and I've helped hundreds of women over 40 navigate perimenopause with confidence, feel great in their bodies and reclaim their mood and energy. So if you're over 40 and feeling like you're changing hormones or hijacking your mood, energy, and weight, and you want to change that in a holistic, sustainable Well, you're in the right place because each episode I share my insights on what's happening in your body, why you're feeling the way that you are, and most importantly how you can change that.

I give you practical, simple, actionable, effective advice to help you move from chaos to calm and feel more comfortable and confident in your body. Today in episode number 78 of Chaos to Calm, I'm diving into which perimenopause phase are you in the five stages explained? Yes, that's right. Are you already going?

Oh my gosh. I had no idea. Five stages from our reproductive era to menopause and beyond. Amazing. So this is the thing about perimenopause. And this is why I was saying today's episode is really important. If you are in your mid to late thirties and early forties, because a lot of women don't even realise they're in it. When they're in those early phases or stages, or maybe you feel like something's not quite right, but.

But you're told you're too young for perimenopause. So if you haven't already listened to last week's episode, episode number 77 was all about busting those myths like you're too young or your periods regular. So it can't be perimenopause. So have a listen to those. And this kind of follows on from it there as well to help you see why you might've succumbed to some of those myths in the past.

Because like I said, a lot of you don't realize that you're in it until you're sort of closer to menopause and things maybe start to ramp up. And that's a real shame because you miss that opportunity to work early on in your perimenopause to help your body better adapt and adjust. You kind of miss that opportunity there.

But, we kind of think that we go from reproductive to menopause. And like you just, you're not in it and then suddenly bang you're in it and you're close to menopause there as well. So you don't really, it doesn't happen that way. It's a bit more insidious. Perimenopause is a gradual transition and we kind of miss that whole gradual part of it until things start to happen more for us.

And it does depend on your body and your genes and your health history and what you eat, drink and do. There's a lot of other factors involved. But it can last from 2 to 12 years, perimenopause. Before you hit menopause. So remember that menopause is diagnosed sort of after the fact.

So you get your last period and then 12 months later, no periods and you're declared menopausal. So yeah, it does happen in stages. It's a phase, like I don't want to say spectrum because it's not really a spectrum, although your experience of it compared to someone else's, like there's a vast spectrum in how you feel through that time period as well.

But yeah, there are stages or phases of perimenopause and your symptoms shift over time. So those phases or stages reflect your hormone levels or what your hormone is. Hormones are doing at that time. I'm just putting the finishing touches on a webinar, all about the four hormone shifts and how things change through perimenopause.

So that's super exciting. You'll be able to access that on demand over the next week or so, or from the next week or so. But yeah, a lot of women tell me when we're talking and I know I felt like this way too, that, something's changing, but my doctor says I'm too young or my period's too regular or, like my, my cycle's not lengthening.

So I don't know, is it hormonal? Is it not? You don't really tell. Put your finger on it. So, yeah, we know, we've talked about it before, perimenopause is not just about age. It's really about those hormones and how they're shifting and changing. And, as I said, that will start earlier than many women expect it.

Research tells us it might, be that it is a bit related to your age when you first get your period. That'll sort of dictate when you go into moving into menopause. Yeah, if you're a bit older getting a period, you might be a bit earlier into bent paws. That's kind of doesn't, that doesn't, it's not intuitive.

That doesn't seem to make sense, but that's when we've read the research last time, that's what it said. So anyway, today I'm going to walk you through those five phases or stages. And so by the end of the episode, you'll be able to see like what stage you're in, you hopefully get a feel for where you're at and understand, why you've been feeling the way you have, or what's sort of happening that's leading you to feeling that way. And also I'm going to give you some little tips on how to support your body through each phase. Of course, I've done a whole episode on quick fixes and magic bullets. They don't exist.

There's no such thing, and I'm going to give you some tips today. And they might just sort of take the edge off for you. What I really want you to know is that. You need to work on what's underlying, and what's driving how you're feeling. Sure, perimenopause and the hormone changes are part of it, but there's also a whole lot of other health history and things going on for you too that are influencing how you feel and, what's happening in your body at this time.

And if you don't address those underlying causes, then, you're really just trying to suppress the symptoms, push them away with nutrients or supplements or medications and they're going to show up, that, that imbalance in your body is going to show up some other way with some other symptoms.

So please keep that in mind. Although I am giving you some tips today and some things that you can do, I do strongly recommend that you, either work through a program or with a practitioner to really get to the bottom of what's happening for you. And also a reminder, get my freebie, the perimenopause decoder.

At the end of this episode or in the show notes is the link to it. And that's going to make it easier for you to work out your stage or phase and what you need to do next. So let's do that. Let's get into it. The five stages of perimenopause. We'll start with the first one, stage one, phase one, super early or very early perimenopause.

So this is for all you overachievers to get started early thinking your cycle is still regular, but it is getting a bit shorter. So it's coming a bit more frequently, which is not usually what we associate with perimenopause or menopause, is it? But this is how it happens. It's kind of more first up more periods.

You might have more PMS, more blood loss, heavier periods sore breasts, migraines, or just feeling a bit irritable or anxious. Then, you might be in this very early phase. This happens because progesterone is starting to decline, but the estrogen is still kind of ticking along as it has been since puberty or since your body settled into menstruating as a young adult.

So estrogen is relatively stable, but without enough progesterone to keep things balanced the, the normal fluctuations of estrogen through your cycle start to feel a bit more extreme and also the loss of or the decline in progesterone really starts to impact your mood and sleep and, some of those other symptoms there as well.

Some cycles might feel completely normal. While others, you feel, really, you're really feeling that PMS and feeling really tight, tired or exhausted, really anxious and snappy. So some will be fine, some will be worse and they're getting closer together. So one thing, that underlies all these phases of perimenopause and something I like to work with women on is keeping your blood sugar balanced because unstable blood sugar levels, blood glucose, make everything feel worse and it actually impacts your hormones and your sleep and, and your mood, your energy, all those things as well, hot flushes, sweats, if you're getting those later on, they're all impacted by unstable blood glucose levels.

So balancing that and I've got lots of episodes on that and no doubt we'll talk about it again in the future, but also in my free training that's coming up, you can hear more about it. I'll tell you the strategy around how to do that. So magnesium. The master relaxer, so those are a great mineral really great for women, in this busy phase of life and adaptogenic herbs or, or Nervine tonics as well.

So some simple ones that you can get usually at the supermarket health food store in the teas, there are things like Tulsi, it's also called Holy Basil, Withania, and even just good old chamomile. They have a really wide safety profile. So they're less likely to interact with your medications. But note, if you are on medications, you do need to check with someone who knows about herbs.

So, check with a Naturopath or Herbalist or sometimes the chemist will be able to check for you if there is an interaction between the herbs and your medication. Also, I suggest you cut back on alcohol and caffeine as both of those can make your symptoms worse. And so does sugar. But if you're working to keep your blood sugar balanced, you're not going to be eating, lollies or, or sugar on its own anyway.

And sometimes just some small tweaks with your alcohol and caffeine consumption can make a big difference there as well. So, yeah, popping your caffeine after your breakfast, like food first, always for those things makes a huge difference. So let's talk about stage two, early perimenopause. Also known as something that feels off.

I'm not quite right. So your cycle starts to shift a bit more. So some months it'll be shorter, like closer together. And other months it'll be further apart or your cycle will be longer. And that PMS kind of notches it up again and more consistently appears before each cycle. So sometimes for some women, you might notice some hot flushes and sweats.

That's maybe a bit of change in your brain function and memory and concentration and maybe more snappier, and moody as well. So again, this happens because the progesterone changes further, and estrogen starts to fluctuate a little there. So we really want to focus to support your body with what I suggested for the very early perimenopause in terms of balancing your blood sugar levels, your magnesium, those adaptogenic herbs and kind of like a baseline prescription, I suppose right through perimenopause and menopause and alcohol and caffeine. And you might be noticing now at this point that alcohol is not really your friend, that it makes, you get hangovers after one glass of one or two, or you start to feel really stuffy in your nose.

Well, after you drink it, so, there's often can be lots of signs that your body's not loving alcohol. And sadly, well, I don't know. I mean, it is carcinogenic, so yeah, it's our body just trying to look after us and let us know that it's not doing things for us that are great. So alongside your magnesium, you might want to add in some of the B vitamins to help with your energy and stress management.

It helps with your blood glucose levels. Also helps with your hormones there. So remember that in perimenopause, It's a natural state of imbalance. So we're not necessarily trying to balance your hormones. However, we are looking to smooth the fluctuations out at this time. So we want to look after our gut and our liver health.

So ideally you're using your bowels once every day, to make sure that we're eliminating the excess hormones. And your liver is, it's our salt. It's working hard for us. It's doing the heavy lifting there every day with our hormone production metabolism and elimination. Again making sure you're eating, I've got that episode on the perimenopause diet.

So do you go back and listen if you haven't already about the four things that should be on your plate, protein, fats, fibre, and phytoestrogens. So. Yeah, so making sure you're, getting your food right, eating your three times a day to help with your blood glucose balance and Giving your body the building blocks that it needs for the hormones and also for processing and eliminating the excess there as well.

So let's talk about stage three This is like mid perimenopause and I like to call this the rollercoaster phase So you really feel like you're on a ride that maybe you didn't think you bought a ticket for it can get a bit crazy at this time. So, ovulation is becoming irregular, which is when we ovulate, that's when we make progesterone.

And so your progesterone is declining, you're not making it at every cycle anymore. And estrogen is fluctuating there as well, even more so. So it's fluctuating high. Higher than its previous highs and lower than any sort of dropping or crashing low as well. So periods may become less frequent. So your cycle may get longer, but it also can get more intense.

So again, more PMS. heavier bleeding. You might also notice that your libido changes. You might get some vaginal dryness, reflux, bloating, and new food intolerances. This is where things can really feel like they're going haywire. I've done previous episodes of alcohol intolerance. This is where you're really going to feel that.

And yeah, a lot of gut issues can come up, which is super interesting. And I need to make a mental note to do an episode on that. So let's talk about stage four late perimenopause. So, what to do in stage three, really, you need to do more of the same of those things that I had suggested earlier.

You want your magnesium, eating your three meals a day, making sure they balance with your protein and fat. That's phytoestrogens and fibre. I've done two episodes, one on phytoestrogens and one on soy. So do you go back and listen to those if phytoestrogens are new for you, these are when you really want those on your side or on your plate every day.

Because they're going to help modulate that estrogen and, and, and smooth the transition or change of it from the big rollercoaster to sort of more like the kiddie rollercoaster that you see at the show. Okay. So let's talk about stage four, late perimenopause. This is a waiting game. So this stage I called the waiting game.

Your periods are few and far between like, in mid-perimenopause, maybe you might be getting what I call a quarterly update. So maybe once a quarter, once every three months, you might get your period in late perimenopause. They are 6 to 10 or 11 months apart. You might be waiting thinking I'm so close.

And then like, yeah, in the 11th month, get another period there. So they're few and far between and go a long time without one. This is where some of those symptoms are particularly around your brain and memory and concentration and your sleep can go really haywire, but you might start noticing other things like joint pain and stiffness.

You start to feel really old and you can really start to worry that, Oh my gosh, am I like getting early dementia? So again, I've done another episode on brain fog why it's not, not dementia and what to do about it. And that was, that was sort of semi-recently. So in the last three months, I did that episode, so probably in the sixties in the episode number.

So yeah, it can get really scary. It can feel really discombobulating. Like you're really like, whose body am I in? Me, I was 47 when this started to ramp up for me. And the other thing that is true to know is that even though you might tip over into menopause at any stage or phase there, sometimes things don't get any better for at least a couple of years post-menopause.

So it's not like once you've had that last period. Your body's like, Oh, okay, cool. That was it. All right. We'll relax now. And this is how it is. It takes some time to adjust to it there as well. So, the last stage or phase is menopause. This is the culmination of two to 12 years of perimenopause. If you haven't had a period in 12 months, congratulations, you are in menopause.

Like I said, it's like a diagnosis. Yeah, once you've been, you never know when that last period is until it's 12 months past it. So yeah, at this stage, your body has to then now adapt to those lower, permanently lower estrogen levels. And it has a significant impact on our body, all our body because every cell has estrogen receptors.

We feel the loss of that. And like I said, it can take a couple of years to improve. So again, you're doing all of these things that I've been talking about. You're eating in the perimenopause diet way, the PerimenoGO way. You're also making sure that you're moving your body and focusing on strength and resistance training because your bone density and your muscle mass take a big hit.

In menopause or in, especially in the first two years post-menopause. And we want to do a little bit of cardio in there as well to help support our cardiovascular health. I've been loving the sauna for my cardiovascular health. I'm not going to lie. I get to sit and read my book and sweat it out.

So watch my heart rate go up while I'm doing nothing, but I do also do some cardio. So just, it's not all my cardio there, but if you're lucky enough to have access to a sauna, it's a really great thing to support, your cardiovascular health, especially if it's an infrared one, it's also going to work on your collagen production and your cellular energy.

And, there's so many different benefits. I'll have to do an episode on it on why I love saunas. So let's talk about menopause, as I said, so doing all those things, magnesium, Bs, herbs all the herbal teas to support your nervous system and reduce that reactivity to stress. So we're trying to build our stress resilience because that's what's missing at this stage is progesterone's gone and, and left the building, so to speak.

 So let's talk about a special guest, maybe the uninvited guest. That's what I should have called this section and that's weight gain. So it can happen at any phase, any time, but lots of women notice that it slowly creeps on.

And the, the average for perimenopause menopause is about 500 grams per year. Most women put on that. Yeah, without changing their diet or exercise, you're still doing the same things, but noticing that creep, then we've got to do things a little bit differently in perimenopause and menopause.

So, your body's changing, the hormones are changing. We need to change our approach to food and what we eat, drink and do. So yeah. It's very, it's complex. And again, my free training that is going to be available soon, is all about why you gain weight, why you can't lose that weight and the hormone shifts and how they work together to create the problem, the metabolic dysfunction that makes it easier to store fat, especially around your middle and your arms.

And yeah, so it's It's complex and easy enough to understand, but it just, it's about explaining what's happening there for you. And so, yeah, how you want to support your body to try and stop and reduce the weight gain is again, I've got the episode on the perimenopause diet, protein, fiber, fats, phytestrogens.

It's all about your blood sugar level and insulin and eating in a way that supports that smooth flow rather than spikes and crashes. And I, while I don't think that you need to avoid carbs at all costs or all carbs, you do need to really think about those refined ones, alcohol, sugar. And if you are going to have them, how, and when you have them as well.

So yeah, you don't have to say goodbye to them forever. That's true. And I guess it's a bit personal too. It depends on your body. How well you tolerate carbs as well. Like, me personally, I can't do a lot of carbs, but I also am not, don't eat low carb. kind of more moderate. Some people can eat a whole bunch more carbs and others can eat less.

So yeah, it's really about how you eat them when you eat them, what kind of carbs you're eating and, yeah, just tweaking that and experimenting with that can often give benefits, but you do, if you're changing things, you always need to give it a little bit of time at least a week or two in between.

Some of those significant changes so you can actually see if it is making a difference. But I feel like I'm gonna get sidetracked here and delve right into talking about carbs and that's really deserves to be its own podcast episode there as well So gut health and carbs, I'll pencil them on for the rest sometime in the rest of the year.

And stress. It's all about stress resilience for us in this phase of life. It's the busiest phase of life. Our stress response, the hormones that we produce, they're a massive blocker to your health, happiness, weight loss. They do promote fat storage. I did a whole. podcast episode on cortisol. I will link that in the show notes as well.

So you can, yeah, learn more about it and what it does to us. So yeah, we lose that stress resilience. We become more reactive to the stressors in our life. And this is why you might've been fine juggling all the balls and things in the past, but in the last few years or five years, you've like, I can't, I can't manage, what I used to manage with.

With such ease. And there's a lot of demand on us as well. And I know that a lot of times you get the advice to just, Oh, we'll just, get rid of your stressors, just try and reduce them. But a lot of us are mums here on the podcast. A lot of us are in paid work and, and running a home and perhaps looking after parents as well as your kids.

It's, there's a lot going on for us. It's a busy phase of life. And what would you get rid of? Like sure, there might be some things that you can delegate or delete from life, but or maybe automate to make it a bit easier for you, but there's a lot that we actually can't get rid of. And that's why I encourage you to focus on your stress resilience rather than just trying to reduce your stressors because that can feel impossible.

All right. So if you're not sure of what stage you're in, then you want to have a look at my free guide, the perimenopause decoder, that's going to help you identify which phase that you're in based on your symptoms and what, your period it's such a great tool, your period. I know I've talked about it before, but every time it comes, it gets to, it gives you a report card on your body and what's going on and where you're at.

So it's worth tracking. And I would encourage you to encourage your daughters, nieces, the women and girls in your life to track their cycle. It is a really, it's like a vital sign. It's a really great source of information about the state of our health and body. So yeah, the perimenopause decode is going to help you work out which phase you're in, understand. 

All right.

What's coming next in what phase and how long, how long might you be in perimenopause for? You can get a guesstimate, an educated guess around that. And also tell you, a bit more about how to support your body through this phase of life there as well. So I'll put the link in the show notes.

You can find it at www.theperimenopausenaturopath.com.au/decoder

D E C O D E R. So thank you so much for joining today and sharing your time with me while I've been talking about which perimenopause phase are you in, those five stages. If you found this helpful, please make sure to follow the podcast so you don't miss future episodes and my tips and advice.

And while you're there, you could please rate the podcast. Even leave a review and let me know what you'd like to see more ratings and reviews mean more women find the podcast and have the opportunity to transform their perimenopause from chaos to calm. And that my friend is all for this episode today.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing your time with me until next time. When we meet, keep transforming your perimenopause from chaos to calm.