Irregular periods are also considered to be one of the basic early menopause symptoms. They occur because your hormones are erratic in the initial phases of early menopause. Here several typical cases are possible:
1) they may come more frequently (for example, every twenty-four days instead of twenty-eight)
2) or more rarely than;
3) you may skip a month or two, then go back to normal pattern for several months;
4) you may have a heavy period with bad bleeding , then the next month you may have quite a slight period;
5) your period may last like eternity, or be quite short and relatively smooth a shorter amount of time.
You may continue this list with more examples as you never know how your period will react to hormonal instability. But according to the type of instability or irregularity you can determine what’s actually happening within your body. For example, periods coming more frequently usually signal that you are producing lower levels of estrogen during your preovulatory stage. Light and smooth periods usually mean that your body doesn’t make enough estrogen to build up your uterine lining. Heavy periods with bad bleeding often signify that your periods are anovulatory, i.e. that your estrogen builds up the uterine lining and at the same time your body doesn’t produce enough progesterone. Rare or skipped periods usually mean that your ovaries continue declining. But generally, when you come closer to menopause your periods become less frequent and your menopausal cycle becomes longer. Then you may start to skip periods. And after all you will stop having periods at all.
But every woman should bear in mind that irregular periods are not necessarily an early menopause symptom as they may be related to some other disease or abnormality like polyps, cancer, fibroids, tumors, etc. So the first thing you should do about irregular periods is to get diagnosed and determine what the real cause is and what you should be treated for.
