What age where you when you started the menopause

[littlemissdizzy00]

I am asking out of curiosity really following on from another post around this subject I have just been reading. I am 42 and have started getting awful headaches, hair lose and times where I am extremely hot and sweaty.

I feel 42 is a bit young for the menopause but maybe I am wrong?

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43 periods stopped. More or less, therefore 45 menopausal. Straight on HRT. But it OTC in Spain.

42 is not too early at all

Thank you another six months and I can say this I’m 56 now.

I think symptoms started about a year after my first child, so around 37/38.

But I had a second child at 41. I felt great for a while and then it's slowly went bottom up!

By 42 I was over heating a lot at night, aches and pains. Period flu. Awful tingling in hands and feet. Slowly got worse, lack of concentration and brain fog etc and was given hrt at 44.

Was still fairly regular but would have horrific fatigue crashes after a period, insomnia and started to get hot flushes.

I've been surprised how quickly I've had to go up to 100 patches based on symptoms and blood tests. now 45. I think I'm still having some cycles but your period sort of merges with a sequential regime and so you may not know when you actually stop.

Question - does it have any bearing when you started your periods? Eg if you started your Periods very late will you have your menopause later too? And vice versa..

I've just turned 52 and I would say symptoms kicked in properly in the last year. Prior to that my periods became a bit more erratic and vicious (I've never had big problems with them, really), but recently they've become further apart, with the odd really short cycle. Mostly though in the last 5 months, coinciding with 2 really, really long cycles I've started getting hot flushes and bigger mood swings.
I haven't gained weight or lost any hair and my skin is still OK. It's manageable at the moment.
Oh and sleep. For a long time (not related to my cycles) I've had interrupted sleep, but always been able to get straight back off. In the last couple of months I've not been able to. I've read lots of books!

I started peri menopause around 38. I had it confirmed by blood test at sone point. My first peri symptoms were my periods going haywire - flooding and in for weeks, then nothing for weeks - just all over the shop. Later it was flushes etc which got to an unbearable extent waking up every two hours soaked in sweat. Dreadful.

Menopause started full on around 44 and lasted for about 6 or 7 years - alleviated for part of the time by HRT.

I have 3 sisters and we all had hugely different ages of onset and symptoms.

I finally put two and two together and realised I was in perimenopause at 44.

I got a Mirena at 46 and never had another period so I'm not sure when I came out the other side. I got the coil out at 54 and haven't had a period since, but it's guesswork as to when they would've naturally stopped.

54-5. Periods stated getting irregular and last one was when I was 56. No other symptoms (I know I'm very fortunate. My mother had a horrendous time and I was dreading it).
42 is young but I've had a couple friends start going through it then. Most were over 50 though.

Similar situation here.

My period was always like clockwork - same time, same day since I started at nine. Missed one just after I turned 40. Then they randomly appeared much heavier over the course of about 18/24 months. All over before I was 43.

No meds, no mood swings etc. The only symptom was flushes which, oddly enough, also arrived like clockwork at the same time every day. lol

This is standard in my maternal family - early, no real symptoms beyond flushes. I'm the only one, so far, who has had clockwork-flushes though.

Like you, I consider myself lucky.

It crept up on me because due to my mum’s experience I wasn’t expecting it so early.

Erratic periods from 43, but I thought that was stress. Around my 46th birthday I suddenly started losing lots of hair when I brushed it, and a few months later some hot flushes.

Now I’m 47.5 and I have weight gain and aching joints, possibly some anxiety but hard to tell. Low energy. And some brain fog (but don’t know if that’s life / Covid / too much time online) Haven’t had a period since May. I quite enjoy not having the cramps and awful moodiness of pmt, but I am mourning the loss of fertility, as I would have loved another child.

I never really had a good sex life and now my libido seems to be draining away, so I’m sad that that came and went and for me it was mainly shit! C’est la vie…

I'm 53. I haven't had a period for 3 years now, but I haven't had any symptoms either.
Do you think that means I'm through it?

Where is best for information on symptoms. Google tells me a generic list that could be related to any number of things. I really want to have decent information to bring to my gp

I believe the later you started, the earlier you end periods... a lower egg reserve if you like.
So, the earlier you started the later you enter menopause.

Certainly true for me and friends who started at 15, all done by 45.

Another odd thing is, everyone I know who started periods later is so much taller.

I seemed to just keep growing until periods started. Same with my DD, same with my tall friends. But that is my observation, not based on anything else.

The thing about later periods earlier menopause I have read many times though. (Sorry no links) It[s been over the years...

I don't think there are any conclusive studies. There are some which do find a correlation and others which don't. I haven't looked carefully at them, but I imagine there are not many statistically significant studies.

I have definitely seen it many times. But these "facts" on menopause have been ridiculously iil funded and change so often that you could be quite right.

I think that's because menarches signifies the end of puberty, following an increased period of growth. So if that happens at a younger age you won't be so tall. Obviously that's a simplistic explanation, but you get what I mean!

I am 5'8" and didn't start my periods until 15. I'm 52 now and going through peri.

Thank you @TheOGCCL for the terminology.
Age 54 for me. Zero symptoms before hand. Had a couple of years symptomless afterwards but gradually beginning to feel the effects of lack of oestrogen.

Yes, I was fine for two years at 43/44 when periods just stopped, but at 46/47, the lackof oestrogen also became apparent. Luckily I had already started taking HRT for my bones so just upped it.

I started my period at 12. Am 5'8.
I think in my case a family history of wonky ovaries/wombs (all maternal aunts had oopherectomy/hysterectomy) in mid 40's

Severe flooding with very irregular periods for 2 years (scans show up clear) and am pretty overweight which is supposed to delay menopause.
Who knows? I could be still in this weird ether in a few years time.
It's interesting to read the different experiences. One things for sure, it pays to be vigilant to your own body and any symptoms.

Eek, @JinglingHellsBells that’s good to know.

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Concise! No shilly shallying for NormalNans