Of or relating to a climacteric; characterized by or involving a critical transition or period of important change.
From 'climacteric' + '-al' (suffix meaning 'of' or 'relating to'). The double suffix '-ic' + '-al' intensifies the meaning, common in older English medical terminology.
Adding '-al' to words already ending in '-ic' (climactic → climactical, dramatic → dramatical) is an older English pattern that's mostly disappeared except in technical language and names of academic fields.
Climacterical carries the same gendered medical history as climacteric: disproportionate medicalization of female menopause from the 17th–20th centuries, while male andropause was minimized or pathologized as psychological rather than biological.
Apply equally to all genders' transitional periods. When gendered context arises, name it explicitly (e.g., 'menopausal climacterical changes') rather than letting the term default to feminine associations.
["transitional","hormonally significant","midlife-related"]
Women physicians and health advocates challenged male-centered endocrinology to include women's experiences, shifting climacterical discussion from pathology to physiology.
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