Evidence standards

Where our information comes from, and how we handle it.

Women’s symptoms deserve to be taken seriously. So does the difference between what the evidence shows and what it doesn’t. These are the rules ALJA and Perimenopause Bestie work by.

See the sources The medical disclaimer

How we weigh evidence

First

Clinical practice guidance and systematic reviewsPosition statements from The Menopause Society and comparable bodies, and reviews that pool many studies.

Then

Individual peer-reviewed studiesCited by name wherever a specific claim rests on them.

Labelled as what they are

Single studies, small trials, expert opinionNever rounded up into something more certain than the evidence supports.

Clinical review: no clinician has signed this off yet, and we say so plainly below.

The standard

Five rules, every time.

Medical claims are sourcedImportant health statements carry their references where you read them, so you can follow a statement back to the research and judge it yourself.
Evidence quality mattersWe work from clinical practice guidance and systematic reviews first, then individual peer-reviewed studies. Single studies, small trials and expert opinion are labelled as what they are.
Observation is not causationPatterns ALJA shows you are observations in your own data — things worth noticing and worth raising with a healthcare professional. Two things moving together does not mean one caused the other, and a pattern is never an explanation.
ALJA does not diagnoseNothing here can tell you whether you are in perimenopause or what is causing a symptom. ALJA helps you describe what is happening accurately and prepare for care. Assessment belongs to a clinician who knows your history.
Honest about the gapsWhere the evidence is mixed, thin or still emerging, we say so rather than rounding it up into something more certain than it is. And we don’t assume every change in a woman’s body is hormonal.

Sources

What we work from.

Expand a source to see how we use it. Citing these does not mean they endorse ALJA or Perimenopause Bestie. They don’t, and we would never imply otherwise.

STRAW+10 — reproductive ageing staging

Harlow et al., Menopause, 2012. The staging system clinicians use to describe the menopause transition. We use it for stage language, expected durations, and for keeping ALJA’s life-stage logic honest about what a self-report can and cannot place.

SWAN — the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation

Including Avis et al. on the duration of vasomotor symptoms, JAMA Internal Medicine, 2015. A long-running, multi-ethnic cohort study. We use it for how long symptoms tend to last and how they vary between women.

The Menopause Society and comparable professional bodies

Position statements and clinical practice guidance on hormone therapy, non-hormonal options, and symptom management. Where guidance differs between bodies or has changed over time, we say so.

NIH Office of Dietary Supplements

Definitions, background and the state of the evidence for supplements commonly discussed in perimenopause. We never recommend anything the evidence doesn’t support.

Named trials and systematic reviews

Cited individually wherever a specific claim rests on them, inside ALJA’s library and programs and in Perimenopause Bestie’s guides. If a claim carries no source, treat it as unsupported and tell us.

Clinical review

No clinician has signed this off yet.

Our content is written from clinical guidance and published research, and important claims carry their sources. But no clinician has formally reviewed and signed off on ALJA. We are establishing that process and will say so here — with names and dates — only once it is genuinely done. Until then, please treat everything here as educational information that has not been independently checked.

Corrections

When we get something wrong.

Tell us and we’ll fix it. Email hello@alja.app with what you found and where, and we’ll correct it or explain why we read the evidence differently.

What ALJA is and isn’t, in plain English: the medical disclaimer.

Where our information comes from, and how we handle it.

Five rules, every time.

What we work from.

No clinician has signed this off yet.

When we get something wrong.

Hear first when ALJA opens.