Average Age Of Menopause

What is the average age of menopause? The answer is actually a bit complex.

Women begin and end the cycle of menopause at different points and many factors play a part in the timing.

Factors That Can Affect When Menopause Begins

Here are just a few things that can affect when and for how long a woman is likely to experience menopause:

? Hysterectomy: A woman who?s had a hysterectomy will experience menopause symptoms much earlier than a woman who hasn?t. In fact, she will experience the symptoms in her 30s or 40s.

? Genetics: Chances are you will begin menopause at around the same time as your grandmother did, which could be earlier or later than the normal age.

? Pregnancy: Women who do not have children have a higher level of exposure to estrogen and this can affect the timing of menopause.

? Smoking: Smoking can bring on menopause much earlier than the woman might otherwise have dealt with.

? PCOS: Women who suffer from Polyctystic Ovarian Syndrome often begin menopause earlier than expected because of their higher exposure to estrogen.

So What Age is Average to Begin Menopause?

Most women who are dealing with menopause may not even be aware that the process has begun.

The earliest phase of menopause is called peri-menopause and may appear as irregular periods, brown spotting and other symptoms related to changes in the way your cycles are typically played out.

Peri-menopause begins anywhere between a woman?s late 30s and late forties. Many of the symptoms typically attributed to menopause begin in the later stages of peri-menopause and are brought on by a decreased level of progesterone and estrogen in the female body.

How do you know that Menopause has begun?

A woman has entered menopause when she?s gone for 12 months without having a period. This typically occurs between the ages of 45 and 55 for most women but again this can vary based on the factors listed above.

One of the best ways to determine whether you may be beginning menopause is to ask yourself if you feel there are any differences in the way you deal with emotions, thinking, stress, and menstrual cycles.

Have you had menstrual cycles since a young age? Did you deal with polycystic ovarian syndrome? What age did some of your most immediate relatives begin menopause?

Discussing your findings with your doctor can also help them to determine your status and whether testing should be done to evaluate your health.

Menopause is a major change in the way a woman?s reproductive organs behave when her natural fertility cycles comes to a close.

There are several symptoms associated with this change that many of us are familiar with such as hot and cold flashes, mood swings and night sweats as well as some symptoms you may not know about such as inflamed joints or constipation.

While we may often look to the idea of menopause as a limiting and terrible event in our lives, the reality is that it is as natural as puberty and all the changes that came with it.

If you take the time to eat right, reduce stress and live your life there?s no reason that menopause should be any different than any of the other changes in your life.