At this stage, your ovaries have stopped releasing eggs. When it’s been at least 12 months since your last period, you’re in postmenopause, and you’ll stay in this stage for the rest of your life.
In postmenopause, your hormones fluctuate less than they did during perimenopause, and your oestrogen levels remain lower. Even so, the symptoms you experienced in perimenopause might continue. There’s no way to know how long these will last – it's different for everyone. For some people, they resolve quickly, and for others, they last years.
While most symptoms will improve during postmenopause, some symptoms like vaginal dryness and needing to go to the toilet more often may continue or even get worse. Topical oestrogen treatments are available and effective at relieving these vaginal and bladder symptoms and can be prescribed by a medical professional, such as your Menopause Wellbeing clinician. As you progress through the stages of menopause and your symptoms change, working with your clinician can help you tailor and adapt your treatment plan.
If you take hormonal contraception that stops your periods, or you don’t get your period for another reason, it can be difficult to determine when you have reached postmenopause, because you won’t have your menstrual cycle as a guide. In these cases, your menopause clinician may consider your age and when your perimenopause symptoms began.
It’s very rare to get pregnant naturally in postmenopause, however it’s still possible. If you don’t want to get pregnant, we recommend using contraception.
If you would like to get pregnant in menopause, talk to your menopause clinician about a referral to a fertility specialist. This is unlikely to be publicly funded and there are health risks with getting pregnant later in life. However, you can explore your options and discuss the risks with a fertility specialist.
Book your 45-minute initial appointment with one of our menopause clinicians.