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🌤️ After menstruation 👶 Age after last period
postmenstrual

postmenstrual

7.9
Age measured from the first day of a mother's last period
  • adjective
  • /ˌpoʊstˈmɛnstruəl/
  • Specialized
: posmenstrual
  • The baby's postmenstrual age was carefully tracked in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Examples

  • Doctors use postmenstrual age to assess the development of premature infants.

  • The doctor measured the baby's age in postmenstrual weeks.

  • The study included only infants with a postmenstrual age of at least thirty-four weeks.

  • In a postmenstrual assessment, doctors often evaluate fetal growth.

  • The doctor evaluated the infant's development at 36 postmenstrual weeks to ensure proper growth.

  • During the follow-up, the pediatrician noted that the baby was healthy for 40 postmenstrual weeks.

  • They measured the baby's weight and height at 30 postmenstrual weeks to assess growth progress.

Surface Forms

postmenstrual positive

Morphology

postmenstrual = menstrual (semi-transparent) = post + menstrual

Formally composed from 'post-' + 'menstrual', but the specific sense as a medical timing/age convention (measured from the first day of the last menstrual period) is a technical usage that may not be obvious to general learners.

Etymology

Postmenstrual combines post- 'after' and menstrual 'monthly period', and doctors use the term to count time from the first day of the mother's last period. That's why a baby's postmenstrual age shows how many weeks have passed since that starting date.