A review of menopause nomenclature

The meaning of menopause is widely understood, but often imprecisely defined in research. The present findings revealed that there is a significant amount of heterogeneity associated with the definition of premenopause, compared with postmenopause. Three key suggestions/recommendations can be distilled from these findings. Firstly, premenopause should be transparently operationalised and reported. Secondly, as a minimum requirement, regular menstruation should be defined as the number of menstrual cycles in a period of at least 3 months. Finally, the utility of introducing normative age-ranges as supplementary criterion for defining stages of reproductive ageing should be considered. The use of consistent terminology in research will enhance our capacity to compare results from different studies and more effectively investigate issues related to women’s health and ageing.