The average age of a woman going through menopause is 51. A woman's rockiest time is not considered age 12 when hormones start kicking in, nor is it age 51 the average age of menopause, it's actually the years just before a woman enters menopause. “It initiates the next big event cycle in a woman’s life and it’s the end of the menstrual cycle," according to Dr. Bloy.

It may surprise women that menopause isn’t a stage- it's an event- it's the single day 12 months after a woman's last menstrual cycle. All the changes women experience before and after this event is actually called peri-menopause. Lynn Wehrmann explains, “I don’t sleep as well, you get hot flashes. And sometimes when I was working I would get extremely hot all of a sudden and felt like I wanted to run out of the room.”

The estrogen levels in a woman's brain tend to calm down over the years and she may become less 'we' focused and more 'me' focused. So how do you know if you're just in a bad mood or experiencing peri-menopause. The changes usually happen after age 40 and can last two to ten years. Lynn Wehrman says it's been about 5 years, but she has been getting used to it.

Lynn also says that she is used to the night sweats and irritability but not the struggle of trying to keep up with her daily activities. “Because of the not sleeping, your energy level goes down and you wish you had more energy to get you through the day.”

So what do doctors recommend to lessen the symptoms of peri-menopause? Dr. Bloy suggests, “the biggest thing is to be healthy; nutrition, supplements exercise.”

Doctors also advise that a diet rich in calcium can provide natural relief from menopausal symptoms.