One of the most common questions we're asked — answered by a GP and menopause specialist.
Sample article, written for product preview. Not yet published editorial.
Expert reviewed by Dr Amara Blake, MBBS, MRCGP · April 2026
For most women over 45 with typical symptoms, guidance is clear: diagnosis is clinical and blood tests are not routinely required. Under 40, or with an atypical picture, testing matters much more.
Posteri Journal content is educational. It does not diagnose, prescribe or replace personalised clinical care.
Keep reading
Perimenopause rarely announces itself. It usually starts as a run of small, unrelated-looking changes — and most women date the beginning about two years later than it actually began.
You fall asleep fine. You wake at four, wide awake, for no reason you can name. Here's what's actually happening — and what has evidence behind it.
Body composition changes in perimenopause even when nothing about your habits does. That isn't a willpower failure — it's physiology, and there are two levers that genuinely move it.