STRAW+10: Executive Summary of the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop (Menopause, 2012)

Tier 1: Established: peer-reviewed research or government health authority
Publisher: The Menopause Society – journal Menopause (Harlow et al., 2012) · Published: August 12, 2026 · Accessed: August 12, 2026

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Claims this source supports

• STRAW+10 defines the menopausal transition by menstrual-cycle criteria – bleeding patterns – not by hormone levels. The early transition (Stage -2) is marked by a persistent difference of 7 or more days in cycle length; the late transition (Stage -1) by 2 or more skipped cycles and an interval of amenorrhea of 60 days or more.
• A woman is not postmenopausal until 12 consecutive months of amenorrhea following the final menstrual period. Perimenopause spans the transition stages: cycles and symptoms are changing, but periods have not yet stopped for 12 months.
• Hormonal measurements such as FSH are not used for staging reproductive aging because of their variability within and across cycles; STRAW+10 was explicitly designed around bleeding-pattern criteria.
• The STRAW+10 staging criteria apply to women with regular cycles as well as irregular ones; the system's reproductive stages (-5 through -3) cover the years of regular cycling that precede the transition.