54% of Women Had Three or More Symptoms. They Still Didn't Think It Was Perimenopause.
The difference between awareness and recognition.
A recent Brightfield Group survey found that 54% of women aged 35-55 who said they were not in perimenopause, or weren’t sure if they were, reported experiencing three or more symptoms commonly associated with it.
That’s a significant number.
The symptoms themselves were familiar enough. Fatigue, disrupted sleep, mood swings, weight changes, migraines and brain fog. Most women have probably experienced at least one of those symptoms at some point in their lives. Many women experience several of them while balancing work, family responsibilities and the general demands of everyday life.
What interests me is the gap between experiencing symptoms and recognizing what they might mean.
We often hear that awareness of the menopause transition is improving. There are more books, podcasts, webinars, workplace initiatives and social media conversations than ever before. Public figures are talking about their experiences. Employers are beginning to pay attention. Healthcare providers are showing more interest in the topic.
Yet this figure suggests that awareness and recognition may not be the same thing.
Perimenopause doesn’t usually arrive as a single event. Symptoms appear over time and often seem unrelated to one another. A woman may begin sleeping poorly and think nothing of it. Months later she notices changes in mood. Brain fog appears. Migraines become more frequent. Weight becomes harder to manage.
Each symptom has a plausible explanation on its own.
Work is stressful. Life is busy. Sleep has never been great. Getting older brings changes.
Viewed separately, none of these experiences necessarily point toward perimenopause. It is only when they are viewed together that a pattern starts to emerge. By that point months or even years may have passed.
I think there is another factor at play as well.
Most educational content presents symptoms as a list. We see articles titled “34 Symptoms of Perimenopause” or graphics that neatly organize experiences into categories. The information is useful, but real life rarely arrives in that format.
A woman doesn’t experience a list.
She experiences her life.
The symptoms are woven into everything else that is already happening. Poor sleep becomes part of a demanding job. Irritability becomes part of family stress. Brain fog becomes part of a busy schedule. Weight changes become something to be dealt with later when there is more time.
Nothing announces itself as part of a larger transition.
That may help explain why so many women in the Brightfield survey were experiencing multiple symptoms without identifying as being in perimenopause.
The statistic itself doesn’t tell us whether those women eventually recognized what was happening. It doesn’t tell us how severe their symptoms were or whether they later sought help. What it does suggest is that there are still many women experiencing changes without seeing them as connected.
Much of the conversation around menopause focuses on information. How do we educate women? How do we educate partners? How do we educate employers?
Those are valuable questions.
The Brightfield data points toward another question.
How do women recognize themselves in the information once they encounter it?
Because there is a difference between knowing that perimenopause exists and recognizing that it may explain what you have been experiencing for the last six months, a year or even longer.
The women in the Brightfield survey may have known the word.
What they hadn’t necessarily recognized was themselves.
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