Is the average age for menopause really 51?

[Gwenhwyfar]

I'm just wondering because, while I keep being told the average age for menopause is 50 or 51, so many of the women I know still have some periods around 54 or 55. I only know one person who had an early menopause (around 40). I realise the average could still be closer to 50, but I also wonder how the average is calculated, and could it have changed over time?
What age were you when your periods had stopped for a full year?

I'm 49 this year and periods still coming regular and heavily as clockwork!

52 this year and they come every 21 days on average, my DM stopped at 52, I’m very ready to stop as well. My periods started a few years before hers so I think it’s pretty unfair that I’ve still got mine now. All my 50 yo friends are still having periods.

52

I had DD when I was very nearly 41 and my periods came back very light. I was randomly tired, achy, aneamic, forgetful and bad tempered for a few years, but that could be town to small children or peri. From my late 40s my periods were barejy noticeable, and they were never regular at any point.

I was just short of my 57th birthday when I had what turned out to be my last period. They'd been pretty regular and extremely heavy up until then, which had caused me no end of issues.

I'll be 59 this summer so it was around 18 months ago now. Very glad to see the back of periods.

Through 50/51 I thought I was almost done and had been having peri symptoms for a while. My periods had become very light with lots of skipped ones, sometimes skipping two or three in a row. Now I'm 52 and they have come back normal flow and regular and have been that way for several months now!

Me too, also 58. Had no periods for 25 years on depo plus 5 contraception free years trying for a second baby (no period, accepted infertility). Stopped depo at 55 periods returned with a vengeance. Long, heavy and irregular, not a happy bunny.

I’m 47 and haven’t had my period in 70 days.

I’m hoping this is the end of them!

My symptoms have been awful!

I'm 53 and a half and my periods come every month just as they always have. They're definitely heavier and not like they were (I had 35 years of light, normal periods so appreciate I've been lucky) but they arrive monthly still

Im quite obviously late peri menopausal but for now, periods as usual

I was 45

It was 51 for me.

Soon I blooming hope - Im 51 and there all over the place - - considering the Mirena coil to put an end to them! My sister was 54.

This is so true. I'm 38 and had my DS at 36. My periods are all over the shop now. I definitely think I'm in peri. My mom was 50 when hers stopped

I'm 53 and mine are still regular

Mine stopped about two and a half years ago (I'm 50). No symptoms of menopause at all! They just died down and stopped.

I'm 53 and they haven't stopped yet.

My mom says was 57 or 58 which terrifies me. She was so over it by then! She's 67 now, one of the few women in the family who hasn't had a hysterectomy for one reason or another. The rest all were catapulted into menopause so hard to when they'd have gone through naturally.

Which would give a slightly higher average age.

I was 52

Much younger for me, 46/7 from what I remember. I'd say peri menopause was hitting hard by 48. Now 52 and seeing a huge improvement so I'm pretty sure I'm coming out the other end thank the lord! I've tried all manner of HRT and then some bright spark mentioned switching to femoston conti and life has changed drastically for the better.

I’m still regular at 51. My sister and my mum didn’t go through menopause until they were 60, so I think they’ll be around for a while yet!

I'm 52 (53 in July) and getting to the "end game" now.
Been peri for 8 years, 5 of them on HRT. The first 3 of the 8 were sort of incremental changes in mood etc, then brain fog until I went to the Dr's thinking I'd got early onset Alzheimers. HRT has enabled me to keep functioning.
But the "end game" for me is months of close together heavy periods, and now a brown sludgy discharge that is heralded by period pain and migraines. It's been like this for a few months. Last year I went 3 months without any discharge (but still with "false alarm" period pain and migraines) and just when I thought that was it, I've been getting the brown sludgy discharge every month (which my Dr says is normal), but not to my usual 30 day cycle.
I can't wait for the last one. I started my periods at 12, couldn't have children, so it's been 40 years of painful periods.

I was just short of 55 when mine stopped though for a few years before this had really heavy periods close together which was u usual for me. it's been over a year now without any real signs of a period but omg the hot flushes and the intense it hing I've had to go on hrt

itching

I was 48

I was 46 when I had my very last period but at 45 had one period and before that maybe 9-10 months? Looking back I was peri-menopausal at 41 when i thought I was going mad ... no one suggested menopause 🙃. My mum however had her last period about 54.