Home · Glossary

Words, without the initiation rite.

Perimenopause
The transition. Cycle changes and/or symptoms, ending 12 months after the final period.
Menopause
The point: 12 months after the final menstrual period (FMP). You don’t “live in” it.
Postmenopause
All the years after that point.
STRAW+10
Research staging system (2012) anchored to the FMP. Not a website diagnosis.
POI
Premature ovarian insufficiency — ovarian function lost under 40. Needs a clinician, not a soy blog.
GSM
Genitourinary syndrome of menopause — dryness, pain, urinary change related to thinning tissue.
Vasomotor symptoms
Hot flushes / flashes and night sweats.
MHT / HRT
Menopausal hormone therapy. Medical. Off this site’s licence.
CBT-Meno / CBT-I
Cognitive behavioural therapy adapted for menopause bother or for insomnia.
Konenki
Japanese midlife season-word: renewal, years, energy.
Rajonivritti
Ayurvedic name for cessation of menstruation as a life-season.
Kidney yin deficiency
A TCM pattern language for thinning cooling/moistening with empty heat — not a lab result.
Second spring
East Asian metaphor for a second unfolding. Poetry, not a KPI.
Kampo
Japanese herbal medicine, often practised inside ordinary clinics.
Pitsa
In some South African indigenous accounts, the pot as holistic care — food, plants, belonging.
Rasayana
Ayurvedic rejuvenative living, not a shopping category.
Dinacharya
Daily rhythm in Ayurveda.
Unani / Tibb
Greco-Arabic traditional medicine of temperament and humours.
Lifestyle medicine
Food, movement, sleep, stress, connection, substances — daily levers, not a detox.
POI / surgical / medical
See types. STRAW’s bleeding calendar often does not apply.
Empty chair
A tradition this atlas will not invent a paragraph for. Pacific and many West Asian/African nations sit here until someone who holds the knowledge writes.
Jing / essence
TCM: the stored life-capital spent across birth, growth, reproduction, ageing. A function-story, not a blood test.
Empty heat
TCM: heat that rises because cooling/moistening (yin) is thin — not because there is surplus fuel.
Heart–Kidney not communicating
TCM sleep/spirit picture: racing mind, body that will not land. Not cardiology.
Sho
Kampo: the pattern of the person in front of you, including how they tell the story.
Agni
Ayurveda: digestive fire. Skipped meals and Slack-during-lunch put it out, in that map.
Prakriti / vikriti
Ayurveda: constitution vs current weather. Not a personality quiz on this site.
Mizaj
Unani: temperament. The body as a climate.
Bother vs frequency
Mind–body: how much a flush hijacks you vs how often it happens. CBT/hypnosis often move bother first.
GSM
Already above — dryness/pain/urinary change. Name pain separately from desire.
Epistemic injustice
Not being believed. A one-pager and a sentence are tools against it — not a personality.

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