Higher than expected numbers stop having periods before the age of 40 for no known medical reason, a study has found.
Around 6 per cent of women had an unexplained premature menopause, leaving them infertile at an early age.
Time of life: Menopause is a natural part of ageing, but for some it comes too early
This figure is much higher than previous estimates – dating back to the Eighties – of as low as 1 per cent.
A further 2 per cent had gone through an early menopause due to cancer treatment or surgery to remove the ovaries.
Women from the lowest social class are almost three times as likely to experience menopause before the age of 40 than those from the highest social class.
The study, at Imperial College London, is one of the most comprehensive to be carried out into premature menopause. In the UK, the average age of the menopause is 51 years, when women’s natural supply of oestrogen dwindles and ovaries run out of eggs.
The lack of oestrogen means women lose their natural protection against heart disease and thinning bones.
Dr Rumana Islam, who carried out the study with Dr Rufus Cartwright, looked at the records of nearly 5,000 women, all of whom were born in Britain in a single week in 1958.
They followed up with them eight times, and at age 50 asked them about the date and cause of their menopause and their quality of life.
Bad habit: Smokers were most at risk of early menopause
A total of 7.4 per cent had gone through the menopause before the age of 40, with smokers and women from the lowest social class most at risk.
Almost one-fifth had had surgical removal of the ovaries, or their ovaries had stopped functioning after chemotherapy treatment. But nearly 6 per cent had ‘unexplained’ early menopause, said Dr Islam.
Women who had an early menopause were more than twice as likely to say they had a poor quality of life ‘affecting vitality, physical function, mental health, and general health perceptions’.
Revealing the findings to the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology, Dr Islam said the ‘burden of physical and psychological ill-health’ imposed by early menopause meant hysterectomy (where the womb and ovaries are surgically removed) as a treatment for period problems should be avoided wherever possible.
She could not explain why early menopause is more common in poorer women, saying factors such as smoking, obesity and lack of physical exercise had already been taken into account and social class remained as an independent risk factor. She suspects doctors and women may be unaware of the health risks of going through the menopause early.
‘Not only is there a greater risk of osteoporosis, there is a higher risk of subsequent cardiovascular disease,’ she said.
‘Primary care doctors need to ask women about the menopause and advise them on what steps to take to protect their health.’
U.S. research found women who experienced menopause before the age of 46 had more than twice the risk of having a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular problem than those who had not gone through it by that age.
Dr John Stevenson, reader in metabolic medicine at Imperial College London, and chairman of Women’s Health Concern, said hormone replacement therapy has been found to protect the arteries.
Dr Nick Panay, chairman of the British Menopause Society, said the latest study ‘provided vital new data on the association with lower socio-economic status’. ( dailymail.co.uk )
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