What Age Do Women Experience Menopause?

The average age that women go through Menopause is approximately 51, which means that for many women it happens before this time. There are various reasons why the age differs from woman to woman. Hereditary and medical reasons are but two.

Because your hormones play a big part in protecting your bones, the later you start Menopause the better, but saying that all women that have not started Menopause when they reach the age of 55, should go to their General Practitioner and have a check-up, in case there is a medical reason for the delay, such as Fibroids.

The age your mother had her Menopause, can be a good guide, but that does not mean that your experience will be the same as hers. So if she had a difficult time, there is no reason why your experience should be the same. Women who smoke tend to have an earlier menopause, by about two years on average, because smoking diminishes the secretion of estrogen in the ovaries. A hysterectomy, even without the removal of the ovaries, can accelerate the onset of Menopause, by about five years. It is believed this happens because of the change in the supply of blood to the ovaries after surgery. Sterilization, where the Fallopian tubes are cut as a contraceptive measure, can bring on an earlier Menopause for the same reason.

Women who are overweight can have a later Menopause because of the extra oestrogen manufactured by the fat cells. Women who have fibroids (benign growths in the womb) may experience a later menopause because they produce higher levels of oestrogen. Although fibroids can be removed surgically, this is not always necessary because they frequently shrink at Menopause when oestrogen levels drop. Unfortunately women sometimes find themselves in a Catch-22 situation, where the oestrogen excess which allows the fibroids to grow delays the drop in hormone levels needed to make them shrink.

How do your Periods Stop? The way your periods stop is as varied as the timing of Menopause. They may stop abruptly; even though your cycle has been perfectly regular, one month your period does not appear and you never have another one. Sometimes periods are regular but bleeding becomes shorter and shorter until it stops. Other women experience irregular bleeding and often periods become heavier but with gaps of several months in between.

Menopause does not always happen as it should. Surgical intervention, and unusually small supply of eggs and even stress can lead to a sudden rather than a gradual Menopause. Surgical Menopause occurs because of the removal of the Ovaries. Ovaries can be removed because they are diseased, but healthy ovaries are often removed as a matter of routine during a hysterectomy. If the ovaries are taken out before Menopause then the effect can be very traumatic for you and your body, because it then arrives literally overnight. As soon as the ovaries are removed, the female hormone supply from the ovaries is cut off. Hormone Replacement Therapy is usually prescribed to prevent the onset of Menopausal symptoms.

When you think about natures way - it gradually reduces the amount of oestrogen produced over a period of 15-20 years. With surgical intervention this is cut off over night. It can be devastating for a young woman whose periods have stopped to discover that she has reached menopause. Not only does it make having a baby impossible without the use of donor eggs, but it also means she has to cope with problems such as hot flushes vaginal dryness and, even more dangerous for young women, osteoporosis. Hormone Replacement therapy would normally be given to help avert this condition.