Plural of climacteric; multiple critical periods or turning points, or multiple instances of menopause or similar life transitions.
From 'climacteric' + '-s' (English plural marker). When a countable noun from Greek or Latin enters English, it takes English pluralization (-s) rather than maintaining the original Greek/Latin plural form.
This shows how English assimilates foreign words—we could say 'climacteres' using the Greek plural, but English speakers naturally added '-s' because that's how we pluralize nouns, even scientific ones.
Plural form maintains the gendered medical baggage of climacteric discourse: historical emphasis on female menopause as the clinical climacteric, with male andropause long excluded or minimized from medical literature.
When referring to climacterics, explicitly include all genders unless discussing a specific gendered condition. Use parallel language (e.g., 'female and male climacterics') to counter historical erasure.
["transitional periods","hormonally significant passages"]
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