We have been studying the information from your diaries to help us understand more about the kinds and amounts of symptoms women have as they go through the menopausal transition. The information from your urine samples tells us what is happening to your hormones. Your calendars help us to see how your periods and menstrual cycles change as you approach menopause. The Menopausal Transition Stages were created based on many years of your calendar data. We have identified three stages of the transition, which we call early, middle and late. Early transition means there were changes in your periods or cycle length. The middle stage is when cycles become irregular and the late stage is when some periods are skipped. When we put all this information together we found some interesting patterns. Several papers have already been published about the stages and more are coming. All those urine samples, calendars and diaries are going to good use!

The symptoms you recorded in the diaries fall into several groups such as emotional symptoms, vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes and night sweats), physical symptoms and insomnia symptoms. When we compared the levels of these symptoms across the early, middle and late menopausal transition stages, one important difference we found was that the women in the late stage of the menopausal transition had a significantly higher level of vasomotor symptoms than the women in early transition. The closer women were to completing the menopausal transition the more hot flashes and night sweats they reported.

Also, when we looked at stress responses in all three menopausal transition stages, we found that there were no significant differences between the groups. Rather than the menopausal transition being related to stress and emotional symptoms, our data suggest that factors associated with midlife women's busy lives that are full of many responsibilities may account for stress and other reported symptoms.

Data from the urine samples tell us that women in the late stage of transition had significantly higher levels of FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) than the women in the early or middle stages. This indicates that FSH levels rise in late transition rather than in middle transition even though women in middle transition have irregular cycles. Each group had similar levels of estrone (a type of estrogen) and testosterone. These findings do not support the common belief that levels of all estrogens drop as menopause gets closer.

To date, the best indicator of where you are in the menopausal transition is your menstrual calendar, which can tell you if your cycles are irregular and if so, if you are skipping periods. We are continuing to analyze the data and will periodically report our findings to you.