Most conversations about menopause start and end with hot flashes. That's a narrow slice of what's actually happening. The transition can span years, and it touches sleep, mood, joints, and memory long before a period ever actually stops.

Heart disease doesn't announce itself the same way in women as it does in men, and the years around menopause are exactly when that difference starts to matter. Fatigue, shortness of breath, jaw or back pain — the symptoms that get written off as stress are often the ones most worth a second look.