What Does Peri/Menopause Mean to You?

Our friends at VITAL invite real people across our community to tell us what perimenopause and menopause mean for them, so we can to find out its real impact & what matters most to you.

VITAL is led by researcher A/Prof Erin Morton, who became interested in this area when she found herself part of the peri-/menopause community a few years ago, & discovered how much more there is to find out & improve. As one of 13million current Australians born with ovaries, of whom 3million are in the most common peri-/menopause* age bracket of 40-59 years old, and being in the approximately 1million who experience symptoms that impact severely on daily life, she wanted to use her research experience to initiate a platform that could contribute to improvements for all.

Perimenopause is officially defined* as the lifestage when hormone levels decline and ovaries stop releasing eggs consistently, characterised by ‘regularly irregular’ menstrual cycles fluctuating by at least 7 days per per cycle.  Peri-menopause is typically experienced between the ages of 40 & 60, of 4 years average duration leading up to menopause.
Menopause is officially defined* as the singular day 1 year after the final menstrual period, with 'post-menopause' technically describing all that occurs afterwards.  
Generally in the community, all 3 phases of this stage of life - peri-menopause, menopause, & post-menopause - are often referred to under the single term of "menopause".

Together with the expert clinicians, researchers & community representatives that form the VITAL team, we will use VITAL registry information to design, drive, & discover more about this hidden condition; determine the impact of peri-/menopause symptoms & associated risk factors, care pathways & effectiveness, plus what's most relevant & of highest priority to our Australian community. We will use VITAL to streamline authorised, relevant & ethical research & in turn, translate to improved community healthcare outcomes such as community education, clinical advice, informing significant health conditions (cancer, ageing etc) and/or health-system use where appropriate, plus longer-term government & workplace policies to make vital improvements in Australian health outcomes.

Information given to VITAL will be used for the purposes of learning and improving the peri-/menopause experience.

The extra peri-/menopause baseline questions include a basic medical history, perimenopause symptoms (aligned with validated Greene's menopause symptom questionnaire & the Meno-D questionnaire), yours & community priorities, a bit of background on your peri/menopause experience, its impacts & actions, & includes validated questionnaires on your quality of life (EQ5D) & activity +/- work impairment (WPAI) to really understand peri-/menopause's potential impact.

Contributing information into this registry does not obligate you to continue to do so - though of course we'd love it if you would. No matter your choice it will not affect your clinical care, & you can withdraw involvement at any time without penalty. 
Contributors automatically get access to summarised VITAL results (eg graphs) & updates about peri-/menopause in Australia, but you can unsubscribe at any time.
You can even get involved in other #menopausematters activities if you want. (See VITAL "Voice" within). It is always up to you, & we will always welcome your ideas.