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 nearly 52 and my periods are as regular as they always were. It's so annoying

I’m 53.5 and still regular as clockwork 😡

(Can’t vote as it will skew the results, I’m hoping I’ll still be 53 and not in the 54+ bracket!)

Can someone post what the results are as I can’t see without voting.

@HebeHerbivore
Age at menopause (a whole year with no periods)
Total votes: 214.

under 4511%

45-479%

48-4912%

50-5125%

52-5314%

54 +29%

So interestingly menopause is just one day. The day it has been a year since your last period. Up to 10 years prior is perimenopause and after is post menopause.

At 54 I was still having regular periods, but around 28 days apart rather than the 40 days apart in my youth. Now I’m on femoston so still have periods and heading towards 60. I started my periods at almost 16 though. I have always wondered if that was related. My Dd started her periods at age 11 or 12.

54 and still having periods. My Mum had her last period at 55 and I had my youngest child at 41 and had no symptoms of peri until my 50s so was expecting menopause to be late.

I don’t know as I had mirena coils from 40-55 and was having no periods at all. I’m in my sixties now, so I guess it was at some point in my fifties!

Mine started to get closer together in late 30s (3 weeks apart or sometimes less). At 44 they started getting further apart but gradually (so I'd have a 100 day cycle then 40 days then 60 etc). Now I'm 46 and there are regular large gaps. I had some gynae surgery last year and they said menopause may come faster now (not a full hysterectomy). My mum was 51 when she became post menopausal so I'd assume around then but for me most likely before.

I was 45

I am still as regular as clockwork at 51.

The average doesn’t mean most women reach menopause at 51. It means that when you add up all the menopause ages of, say, 10,000 women, and then divide that total by the number of women, you get 51. For every woman who reaches menopause at, say 55 or 58, there will be another who reaches it in her early 40s, which brings the average down. Your sample group of friends is too small to be in any way statistically significant.

This thread suggests there's a lot of us who haven't read the 51 memo:
To think I shouldn't still behaving periods

Thanks. I can’t believe the highest % is 54+ 😫

I'll be 55 this year, nearly 10 years of peri, periods typically ranging from 2 week to 2 month gaps, with one 3 month gap last year, have really had enough now, though have had minimal symptoms apart from erratic periods, so that's something.

49 for me

55

41 for me. 42 when they had stopped for the year.

I'm not sure, tbh. I had a Mirena put in at 46 and taken out at 53. I haven't had a period since I got the thing put in, and was definitely postmenopausal when it came out. If I'm asked by a medical professional I say 51, because it's easier than trying to explain that I don't actually know

My last one was a month before my 53rd birthday, 11 months after having a mirena.
For the 4 years before that they were every pattern you could imagine. Long and heavy with 3 weeks respite, spaced out and lighter, flooding, then eventually they spaced out and stopped. Good riddance!

If they only use the mean average, yes. However, my gynaecologist uses it to argue to me that I will probably be done by 50 anyway so that is definitely the impression she likes to give.

Jesus Christ every single month. Sore tits for weeks with a cyst that flares up and worst.... regular periods. It's actually driving me mad. Yes no hrt, no menopausal symptoms, no irregularities ... Same as it ever was

I feel like the second a woman on my Facebook turns 40 she’s suddenly in perimenopause.

I was 39 as was my mum and her sister. This is why it drives me crazy to see people suggesting there is no urgency to start trying to conceive. I married at 31, we started trying within a year and it was already too late.

Every woman but one I know stopped in her 40s. I'm 51 and still going each month. This year the cycle lengths have been a bit less predictable though, so I don't know if that's something to be concerned about or normal. I plan to mention it to my doctor next time I see her. Also getting sharper cramps.

51 here, still having periods but light however as I have a mirena I have no idea
what I would have otherwise. I had a blood test 3 years ago and gp said i definitely still needed birth control as hormones were at levels typical of 30 something - I’m quite ready for them to stop!