Menopause is a natural and inevitable part of getting older for people born with ovaries.
According to ABC News, it marks the end of a woman's reproductive years, and is associated with a range of changes including bone thinning, weight gain and bladder issues.
A study published in Nature Medicine suggests the biological changes across multiple body systems are not gradual, but sudden and "cliff-like".
To reach this conclusion, researchers analysed more than 300 million laboratory tests from more than 1 million women in the United States and Israel between 1999 and 2024.
The study, led by Uri Alon, head of the Sagol Center for Longevity Research at Israel's Weizmann Institute, found "abrupt, step-like changes across nearly all physiological systems" at menopause.
But Australian experts urge caution interpreting the results.
Martha Hickey, head of menopause services at The Women's Hospital Victoria who was not involved in the study, described the claim of "cliff-like" changes across multiple body systems as "unnecessarily alarming" for women.
"Physiological cliff is not a scientific or medical term," she said.
Gradual vs sudden changes
Menopause is a time 12 months after a person's last period when their ovaries stop functioning.
During menopause a woman's body undergoes changes affecting the heart, skin, brain, bones and reproductive system, primarily because much lower amounts of oestrogen and progesterone are being produced.
Highly respected studies, such as the long-running US Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), suggests these all-body changes are gradual, happening over about three years.
