Some women in the perimenopause get irregular periods and that’s often why they come and see me, as a GP, because they’re worried there has been a change. And what happens is, when your perimenopause is starting, is your periods actually get closer together and that drives women mad because, you know, you can just about put up with a period once a month, every five weeks but if it comes to be every three weeks or sometimes even fifteen days you just never get a break from being premenstrual and bleeding but that is actually very common. So they go closer together for a year or two and then gradually come further apart and you get a period every six to eight weeks and then they stop or you have one every three months and then they peter out. So there’s a change. Also women may get heavier bleeding. And that’s really due to fibroids. Those are benign lumps of muscle in the uterus that every woman has over the age of 40 but it stops the womb contracting down and stopping the bleeding and so your periods can get heavier. And the factor of heavier periods and more frequent periods means that we all become anaemic and that makes us tired and grumpy and lethargic. And so it’s quite important if you’re feeling very tired to go to your GP and check that you’re not anaemic because you may just need iron to feel better or there are other ways to lessen your periods.