For women who have gone through the menopause

[Briannaco]

Did you go through it at a similar age to your mum?

I'm 40. I have the most awful painful periods.

I was moaning about them to my mum the other day. She said "well the good news is, you don't have much longer to go".

I had thought that i would be getting periods until my fifties. And I know that some women do.

My mum said "no i went through menopause in my forties. And so did my mum. So i think you're likely to take after me '

I wonder is there any truth in this. I did start my periods at the same age as my mum. We were both quite late to start- 15.

No. Mum was early 40s, I was mid 50s.

My mum and sisters have all had their menopause in their 50s. I had my last period at age 42.

They've all needed HRT and had quite difficult symptoms whereas I was lucky and apart from some minor mood swings and loss of labido I felt fine.

The only difference otherwise is that I was late starting my periods. I was 17. The later you start, the earlier you finish.

Not sure about menopause Ive just gone through a year with no periods at 53 nearly 54, I think my mum was similar age but she has dementia now so not sure, however I do know we started periods at completely different times - 3 years difference and me and my DDs also started periods at different ages.
However my BF went through early menopause like her mum.

Just to add if your periods are awful, flooding, 2 weeks on 2weeks off etc, go to your GP.
I had heavy long periods in my 40s and had uterine ablation to remove lining in womb, would recommend it if you are really suffering.

No, I was quite surprised to start it a lot sooner. Two of my paternal cousins however started it at the same age and also had the same symptoms which seems very strange to me as I had assumed it would go down the maternal line.

My dm had a hysterectomy at 30, so when I started getting peri symptoms I asked my maternal dgm how old she was when she reached menopause. She said she was 50 but had symptoms for 10 years prior, I'm 45 now and periods are getting further apart, having initially getting closer together, so I hope I'm entering later stages of peri. I can't bloody wait for them to finally stop

My mum and grandmother started periods at similar ages to me and I seem to be following them into a late menopause.

The nurse practitioner who specialises in women’s health at the practice told me there’s a strong genetic component but diet and lifestyle also can affect it.

It is quite common that if mother was early , daughter will be too

Note that HRT is especially beneficial for women who hit menopause in their 40s

My Mum was 48 and I was 51. Exact same main symptom - hot flushes. That's the only one we had.

Thanks so much. I've been going to different doctors with this issue several times. They haven't helped me so far.

I don't have heavy flooding.

I just have desperate desperate pain. All day every day now - the entire week before my period I have pain all day every day.

And the entire week of my period I have pain all day every day.

So two weeks of terrible pain per month. Painkillers don't help.

There's a 50% chance that whatever genes dictate menopause were passed down through your mother.

Yes both my mother and me had early menopause

Yes periods stopped at age 56 for both me and my mum. My periods went on for years!

I don't think you can rely on starting the menopause as early as your mom did. My periods stopped at least 12 years earlier than my mom's, I was early 40's and my mom was mid 50's. My sister was somewhere in between.

No. Mum was early 40s. I was mid 50s.

No, my Mum was late fifties and I started my menopause aged 33. Mine didn’t come about from a hysterectomy, just bad luck (or good luck some might say). I was lucky I’d had all the children I was going to have by age 31 and had actually been sterilised but it was still a bit of a shock.
I started my periods aged 11 so not sure where a pp said the later your period start, the earlier they’ll finish, definitely not the case for me.

Yes me, mum , maternal GM , mum’s sister and maternal great aunts all had early menopause by 40. Don’t know about any further back.