Menopause is not a disease. It is a natural biological aging process. It is experienced by every woman sooner or later when she reaches a specific age limit. Are you looking for a menopause age calculator? In this article, we will discuss what menopause is, what are the effects of menopause on women, and What factors that influence menopause age.
After reading this article, you will have a brief idea about menopause along with the key factors.
What is menopause?
Menopause is the natural process that marks the end of your Period/Menstrual Cycle. The average age for menopause is 51 years. However, it can happen between the 40s to 50s as well. Menopause can be marked by the last 12 months of your Menstrual Cycle. It means when you last have your Periods to the further 12 months.
What is the difference between menopause and early menopause?
If you reach menopause early, then the said age, which is 51, is considered as early menopause.
About 1 -2% of women experience menopause before age 40. It is known as premature menopause.
About 5 to 7% of women experience menopause at the age of 40-45 years, known as early menopause.
What does menopause do to women?
Menopause year is a year of transition in which your body undergoes substantial changes. These changes are the natural result of menopause. You may experience chills, Mood Swings, Weight gain due to delayed metabolism, Disturbance in the sleep cycle, Hair loss, night sweats (Oligomenorrhea), irregular periods, and dryness in the vagina.
Stated signs are not exclusive, every woman experiences a different type of symptoms but is not limited to the stated symptoms.
Irregularity in periods not necessarily means that it is a sign of menopause. It is temporary sometimes when your periods won’t appear for 1 or 2 months and then back to normal after months.
Another reason for periods irregularity might be pregnancy.
What is perimenopause?
Perimenopause, as the name suggests, is a symptom that occurs before menopause. It may last for a year, and after 12 months, when you experience no single event of periods, it can be considered as menopause.
However, you can experience the same symptoms for both menopause and perimenopause.
Menopause and perimenopause symptoms can have a social impact on your life and your personal life as well.
If you are experiencing symptoms and want relief, medical interventions can help you in relieving the symptoms.
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Factors Influencing menopause?
Your mother’s age of menopause is merely not a single factor that influences your menopause age. There are several other factors, such as:
Smoking:
Smoking has a detrimental effect on your ovaries other than any other lifestyle can ever do.
If you smoke, there are chances that you might reach menopause earlier than your mother. In conclusion, smoking leads you to menopause earlier than natural biological aging.
Chemotherapy:
If you have undergone any chemotherapy, then the ovaries are affected by the radiation. You may experience temporary menopause. Usually, periods do not return to normal, but in some cases, they may return to normal.
However, it is confirmed that you will experience earlier menopause after chemotherapy.
Ovarian Surgery:
It is natural that the more you operate on your ovaries more you tend to end up damaging healthy tissues.
So, if you have operated on your ovaries before, you might tend to experience early menopause.
Trauma and physical abuse:
It is found that a woman or child who has undergone multiple times physical abuse in childhood can experience menopause early at a significant age difference that is 8.7 years earlier than the average age.
Also, if chronic stress builds up for a longer period of time, it suppresses the immune system impacting the release of certain hormones.
Factors that do not influence menopause:
Some of the factors you might think can influence the menopause process, but in reality, they don’t
Age at first Menstrual Cycle:
In the US, the average age of periods is getting younger than retrospective data, but there is no such shift in the average age of menopause.
So, age at the first menstrual cycle has no impact on menopause.
Hormonal and contraceptive methods:
It is not essential to ovulate regardless of ovulation. All the follicle at that point in time dies naturally, leaving no impact on the age of menopause.
Ethnicity:
Race and ethnicity do not play any role in delaying menopause.
Does maintaining a healthy body delay menopause?
Although it is good to maintain a healthy body for many reasons, but maintaining a healthy body cannot influence menopause.
Weight management obesity is one of the critical indicators that can influence menopause, but in women having moderate weight, it has no impact on biological aging.
How to Predict/Calculate Menopause age?
It is imperative to understand why it is essential to predict menopause age. Menopause affects important decisions in life. So, if a woman has an idea of her menopause, she can make critical decisions about her health accordingly.
However, for now, much more research is required to unveil the correct method of menopause age prediction.
There are no defined criteria or ways to determine menopause. Smoking is the only modifiable factor that influences and alters the age of menopause.
However, menopause can only be predicted when you get closer to the process of biological aging.
Menopause cannot be delayed, and you cannot get pregnant once you reach menopause, except in exceptional cases involving surgical intervention.
Key facts about menopause?
Menopause is the point in a woman’s life that marks the end of her reproductive cycle. Which means she cannot give birth after that specific point in time.
The age of menopause is between 45 to 55 years naturally, which is part of biological aging.
Menopauses are the result of the natural decline in reproductive hormones, mainly oestrogen. In this, ovarian follicular function declines, and there is no release of oocytes by the ovary resulting in loss of reproduction.
Menopause is not always the result of natural aging. It sometimes might result from surgical interventions or other medical procedures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I calculate my menopause age?
Menopause age can’t be determined unless you reach closer to the average age of menopause.
What determines the age of menopause?
Several factors such as smoking, ovarian surgery, trauma and physical abuse influence menopause age.
Can you start menopause at 55?
Usually, menopause begins at the age of 45 but it may last up to 14 years.
