Menopause stage: premenopause, perimenopause or postmenopause

This tool identifies the stage of the menopausal transition using the international STRAW+10 criteria — the same ones used in research and in the clinic. The stage is set by the cycle, not by age and not by how you feel. Answer briefly, or enter your recent period dates and have the criterion applied to your own numbers.

How to find your stage

1
Start with age and your cycle

The cycle is the criterion, so it comes first. A short answer is enough for the stage; dates make it exact.

2
Add the details that block staging

After a hysterectomy or ablation, or while taking hormones, the stage cannot be read from the cycle at all — and the tool will say so instead of inventing one.

3
Tick the separate circumstances

Bleeding after a year without periods, very heavy periods, plans for pregnancy — these decide the warnings.

4
Take the result to your doctor

The screen shows not only the stage but the criterion that produced it. The page can be saved as a PDF or printed.

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See which point of the transition you are at, and what follows from it

Age does not decide the stage — STRAW+10 stages by the cycle. It does decide whether early menopause needs a separate check.
What is happening with your cycle Answer in a few words, or enter your dates — then the STRAW+10 criterion is applied to your numbers instead of your memory.
If your periods are still coming, enter 0 or 1.
How has cycle length changed over the past year Compare the gaps between period start dates, not how long the bleeding lasts.
Details that can change the answer Below are conditions and medicines that stop bleeding from reflecting how the ovaries work. If none apply, just skip them.
Any surgery on the uterus or ovaries After some operations the stage cannot be read from the cycle at all — that is a direct instruction in STRAW+10, not a technicality.
Are you taking hormones now Hormonal products change or remove bleeding, so bleeding can no longer tell you how the ovaries are working.
Does any of this apply These conditions disturb the cycle on their own, and the staging criteria are not applied to them.
Worth mentioning to your doctor None of this changes the stage, but all of it changes the conversation about treatment. Each mark adds its own question to the list. The tool neither forbids nor prescribes anything: weighing that up is the doctor’s job.
Tick anything that is true for you These answers change the warnings, not the stage itself.
Method: what exactly is computed

Every rule with its own source, so the tool can be checked against the guideline line by line instead of taken on trust.

RuleSource
Early menopausal transition (−2): a persistent difference of 7 days or more between consecutive cycle lengths, recurring within 10 cycles.STRAW+10: Harlow S.D. et al., Fertil Steril 2012;97:843-51
Late menopausal transition (−1): amenorrhoea of 60 days or longer.STRAW+10: Harlow S.D. et al., Fertil Steril 2012;97:843-51
Postmenopause: the final menstrual period is identified retrospectively, after 12 months without bleeding.STRAW+10: Harlow S.D. et al., Fertil Steril 2012;97:843-51
Early postmenopause lasts roughly 5 to 8 years from the final menstrual period.STRAW+10: Harlow S.D. et al., Fertil Steril 2012;97:843-51
The cycle cannot be staged after hysterectomy or endometrial ablation, with PCOS, hypothalamic amenorrhoea, chemotherapy or pelvic radiation, on hormonal medication, and in pregnancy or breastfeeding. In these cases the tool refuses to name a stage.STRAW+10: Harlow S.D. et al., Fertil Steril 2012;97:843-51

Checked against the primary sources on 2026-09-09. If a threshold changes, so does this date — a separate test keeps them together.

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Features

The STRAW+10 criterion, not a home-made quiz
A difference of 7 days or more between neighboring cycles, repeating within 10 cycles — early perimenopause; 60 days without bleeding — late; 12 months — postmenopause. The wording comes from the source paper.
Computed from your dates
Enter four or more period start dates and the tool works out the gaps, finds the repeat and shows exactly which pair of cycles triggered it.
An honest refusal where no stage exists
After hysterectomy or ablation, with PCOS, on hormones and after chemotherapy the cycle criteria do not apply. Instead of an invented stage the tool explains what is used in their place.
A fertility warning
Perimenopause only ends twelve months after the final period. If you use no contraception and are not planning a pregnancy, the tool says so.
Separate logic below 40 and below 45
Early menopause and ovarian insufficiency are checked against the ESHRE age criteria rather than against symptoms — in ovarian insufficiency there may be no symptoms at all.
A result built for the appointment
Stage, criterion, duration and questions for the specialist on one page, saveable as a PDF or printable.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the tool never ask about hot flushes if it is identifying menopause?

Because STRAW+10 stages by the cycle and states explicitly that no universal set of symptoms exists: hot flushes and mood are included only as descriptive information about a stage, never as its criterion. Symptoms are measured on a separate scale, and there is a companion tool for that.

I entered dates, but the stage says it was based on my description. Why?

To apply the variability criterion you need a repeat: a difference of 7 days or more has to occur twice within ten cycles. Three dates give only two gaps, so there is nothing for a repeat to show up in. Add a fourth date and beyond.

I have had a hysterectomy. Why can it not just go by my age?

Because the age of menopause cannot be predicted for an individual, and after a hysterectomy the ovaries often keep working for years. STRAW+10 therefore sends such cases to blood tests rather than to a calendar. Blood is taken no sooner than three months after surgery, since the operation itself raises FSH temporarily.

My periods stopped for eight months and then came back. Does the count continue?

No, it restarts. Menopause is defined by twelve consecutive months without a period, so bleeding resets the count and leaves you in late perimenopause.

Can the stage tell me when this will be over?

Only roughly, and only for an average woman: late perimenopause lasts 1–3 years on average and early postmenopause around 5–8 years. Those are published cohort averages, not a forecast for you, and the tool deliberately gives no dates.

Would an over-the-counter FSH test strip identify the stage more accurately?

No. In STRAW+10 FSH is a supportive marker in late perimenopause, while the cycle is the primary criterion. At this age FSH swings from cycle to cycle, so a single strip cannot overrule the bleeding pattern — and while you are taking hormones it shows nothing at all.

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