Many women, younger ones too, wonder when they’ll enter menopause, the end of their reproductive years.
They may simply be curious, or have unfinished family planning.
About half of all women have their last menstrual period at the age of 51-52 years, according to Germany’s Federal Institute of Public Health (BIÖG).
But it can come considerably earlier or later.
The perimenopause, or start of the hormonal transition into menopause, typically lasts several years.
Actually, women do have a clue as to when they’ll reach the menopause, namely the age at which their mother did.
“The mother’s menopause is a useful guideline, particularly if it happened very early or very late,” says Wibke Cornelius, a member of Germany’s Professional Association of Gynaecologists (BVF).
“It’s just a likelihood though, and not firmly predictive.”
Since a woman’s genes are the biggest factor affecting the timing of the menopause, “its onset can’t be deliberately controlled,” she says, adding that there are, however, factors that can slightly advance it “by a year or two at most.”
These factors include smoking, high stress levels, diseases such as diabetes and surgeries involving the uterus, ovaries or fallopian tubes.
The cause of early menopause is often unclear.
About 1% of women experience what’s known as “premature” menopause.
“It’s when the ovaries stop functioning before the age of 40,” Cornelius says.
Affected women then no longer menstruate.
This can have a severe emotional impact if the woman still wants to have a child or children. About 0.3% of women have their last menstrual period before the age of 35.
“Why me?” they may wonder in anguish, but “the underlying cause of premature menopause can’t be precisely determined in many cases,” says Cornelius.
Genes are the most likely culprit, though.
“Also having an influence,” she points out, “are stresses – smoking, harmful medications, irradiation, malnutrition – that the woman’s mother was subjected to during pregnancy.”
The reason is that all of a woman’s ovarian follicles, each of which contains an egg, are already present at birth.
If the number is comparatively low, the egg cell supply will naturally become depleted sooner. – dpa
