Changes to your periods
Cycles shorten, lengthen, skip, get heavier or lighter. Most change is normal. Some is not. Heavy bleeding, bleeding between periods and bleeding after sex need checking, because fibroids, polyps, thyroid problems and occasionally cancer can look the same.
Hot flushes and night sweats
The most common symptom. A sudden wave of heat through the chest, neck and face, often with sweating and a racing heart. Each lasts one to five minutes. See the hot flushes page for treatment.
Sleep
Waking at night, often between 2 and 4 in the morning, and struggling to get back to sleep. Night sweats cause some of it. Hormone change causes the rest.
Mood, anxiety and brain fog
Irritability, rage, low mood, new anxiety, forgetting words and losing focus are common. They are real, they have a hormonal basis, and they are treatable.
Vaginal, vulval and bladder changes
Dryness, burning, itching, pain with sex, urgency, needing to pass urine at night and repeated urine infections. Unlike hot flushes, these get worse over time without treatment.
Sexual changes
Lower desire, slower arousal, weaker orgasm and pain with sex. The causes are physical, psychological and relational at once.
Body changes
Joint and muscle aches, stiffness, weight shifting to the waist, dry skin, thinning hair, brittle nails, palpitations, headaches and tinnitus. Joint pain is one of the most common symptoms and one of the least discussed.
See a practitioner if
- Symptoms affect your work, relationships, sleep or sex
- You have any unusual bleeding
- Palpitations come with chest pain, fainting or breathlessness
Common questions
Will my symptoms go away on their own?
Many improve within a few years of your final period. Hot flushes last a median of 7.4 years. Vaginal and bladder symptoms usually worsen without treatment.
How do I know it is menopause and not something else?
Thyroid disease, iron deficiency, depression and some medicines cause similar symptoms. Your practitioner can check for these with a history and simple blood tests.
When can I stop hormonal contraception?
Contraception masks menopause. Most practitioners advise continuing until your early to mid fifties, when nine in ten women have reached menopause.
Sources
- Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, longitudinal cohort of more than 3,000 women
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NG23, updated 2024
- Australasian Menopause Society, symptom score sheet
This page is education, not medical advice. Talk to your doctor or menopause practitioner about your own care. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.