Final Menstrual Period (FMP)

The final menstrual period is a woman's last menstrual bleed, and it can only be named in hindsight, once twelve months have passed with no further bleeding. That twelve-month mark dates menopause, and the unsettled years before it are perimenopause.

Research uses the final menstrual period as a clock, counting years before and after it to track what changes and when. A woman living through the transition has no such clock, because any period may or may not prove to be the last.

These years carry consequences that outlast the bleeding. In 451 midlife women followed through the menopause transition, faster bone loss at the lumbar spine predicted later fracture, whatever the starting bone density.¹