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[GypsyRoseLee]

Does anyone how likely you are to have your menopause at the same time as your close female relatives?

Both my cousins, and my Auntie were post menopausal by 28, 38 and 44.

I have no idea how old my Mum would have been.as she had a surgical menopause at 42. But, she started suffering with peri symptoms at 38.

I am nearly 46, and just wondered if there was a rule of thumb to work out when you should reach menopause, using female relatives for comparison.

[Dorothy]

I know if your close relatives were early you are more likely to be early yourself.  I have a friend who started at 38 and her mum and grandma also started at 38!  Don't know if it works out the same way for people who don't start early though

[coldethyl]

My GP said you're usually in same ballpark as your mother, though it can be influenced by things like smoking ( smokers tend to have earlier menopauses.)

[Joyce]

After hysterectomy in my mid 30's I went into menopause. However, my mum was in her early 40's when it hit her, she'd had me at 41. So I may well have hit it around that time if it had been a natural meno.

I seem to remember reading somewhere, sometime in the dim distant past that if you started your periods early, then meno would also start early. But that could be a load of poppycock! 

[Dorothy]

I read that if you started late you finished early and if you started early you finished late!

I started my periods a week before I turned 13 and had my first meno symptoms at 35.

[coldethyl]

I don't think start of menstruation actually influences the end date. I started so 9 and still at it at nearly 50. What it can influence, apparently, is how we react to the fluctuating oestrogen levels as our bodies have been used to oestrogen for longer, so can react more extremely when it declines.

[Joyce]

I was about 13 when I started too, which I think is average. I had a friend, same age as me who was nearly 17 before she started. Don't know when meno hit her though.

Oh poor you coldethyl! That is early.

[coldethyl]

Mum was very early too. I remember friends at school being horrified when the talk about periods was given in first year secondary and I just thought doesn't everyone already have them?

[Clovie]

I also read that if you started your periods late, you'd get to menopause early.

I started my periods at 16!  But I was very slim and athletic at that time, so that may have affected it.

I started with hot flushes at about 48 BUT I'd had what seemed like almost continuous PMS for a good few years before that (certainly worsening PMS)

Interesting topic.   

I wonder why girls are reaching maturity and starting their periods seemingly earlier and earlier? 

[coldethyl]

Think there are lots of reasons for it. Better nutrition , housing etc influence when a girl goes through puberty as does exposure to all the endocrine hormones sloshing round in the water supply.

[Lizab]

I read somewhere that women are hitting it earlier now. But I do wonder if that's really true or if the "average" is flawed. I see lots of posts here about mothers and grandmothers in menopause in their late 30s and early 40s. If the average is 50, it would stand to reason that we would see equal reports of women lasting into their early 60s. I don't see those.

[kazy68]

My mum was 39 when she started with menopause symptoms, my eldest sister is 54 today and has just started with symptoms, nasty ones too, my middle sister is nearly 50 and has symptoms me I'm 47 and me the same as my mum starting between 36 and 39 so the 3 of us every time we get together go through all our symptoms and help each other.

Karen
Xxx

[lily]

My mum was 14 before she started periods and had a late-ish menopause, my sister had early menopause at 38. I'm 53 and still in peri meno, sister and me both started periods at 12.

[Kathleen]

Hello ladies.

I didn't begin menstruating until I was nearly 17 and I was slim and fairly short at 5 foot 3. Apart from two pregnancies I never missed a period until they suddenly stopped over 5 years ago when I was 54. My GP said that my mother's  age at meno would be a good predictor for me but she had a hysterectomy in her forties so that didn't help.

As we often say ladies, we are all different.

Take care all.

K.

[Nina]

All the women in my family has early menos