Is this Menopause?

My younger sister, who has yet to hit menopause, but clearly approaching this time of her life, told me that she recently left the keys in the car…and the motor running…for two hours while she shopped. “Is this menopause?” she asked.  Perhaps as a stand-alone occurrence, you could chalk it up to being pre-occupied or temporarily absent-minded (she is, after all, a Ph.D).  But lately she’s been describing other symptoms - such as insomnia and a racing heart at times – and asking the same question “is this menopause?”   When you’re perimenopausal, it’s difficult to connect the dots and see how your disparate symptoms can be attributed to menopause.  Only in hindsight, can you clearly explain the collective changes that you slowly went through.  I found a list of 35 common symptoms of menopause that can serve as a guide for you newbies. It was developed from the real-life experiences of hundreds of women.  (I could have contributed 15 of them if I had been asked   http://www.project-aware.org/Experience/symptoms.shtml