Unraveling the core and bridge menopausal symptoms of perimenopausal women: a network analysis

Perimenopause is the period from the early menopausal transition to 12 months after the final menstrual period. The clustering of menopausal symptoms poses a challenge for perimenopausal management. Core symptoms are targets for interventions that can alleviate other related symptoms. Bridge symptoms are connectors that link related symptom clusters and can improve the effectiveness of interventions. This study aims to construct a network structure of menopausal symptoms and to identify core and bridge symptoms as a reference for future management.