difference perimenopause vs. menapause

I accidentally ran into expression perimenopause in a mag. I didn’t even know it existed. As I am slowly approaching to that age I was wondering if somebody could explain the difference between perimenopause and menopause to me? Thx

Hi there! I also didn’t know what the perimenopause was until I started experiencing it’s symptoms. I thought I was going mad, but then I learned about perimenopause. In my case, it didn’t differ much from the actual menopause. I have been experiencing the same symptoms like hot flashes and depression, irritability, being unable to get along with my family, etc….This is how it all started. The difference was that during perimenopause I still had periods and in the menopause-I didn’t of course.