Your menopause age can depend on a variety of factors, and as the experts at WebMD can tell you, it has to do with genetics as well. Each person reaches “the change” at a slightly different age, and depending on anything from your lifestyle to health conditions you might be suffering from, there are definitely a lot of different variables at work here.
Genetic influences are strong when it comes to determining the onset of peri-menopause. This beginning stage is when all your menopause-related problems start to appear, and you’ll find it will not fall in a very different time period from the age your mother started to get the symptoms. Although this isn’t always the case, you’ll find that, if you talk to most women who have gone through the cycle, they will confirm that their triggering period was the same as that of their parents or grandparents.
Many other factors can also influence the onset of the first signs of menopause. According to Emedicine Health, the symptoms can appear prematurely in women going through a variety of health problems, or they can do so without any obvious cause.
Smoking is one of the main factors that could trigger the symptoms early. In fact, most experts agree that if your mother didn’t smoke, and she went through the changes at around the age of 45, you might reach menopause earlier than she did. The difference is not always big, but it can be anything from a few months to several years.
The age when menopause-induced symptoms start to appear can also be influenced by treatments like chemotherapy or ovarian surgery. Most types of chemotherapy are highly toxic to the ovaries, and some young women will even go through a temporary menopause-like stage while undergoing the treatment. As for ovarian surgery, it may lead to a significant portion of healthy tissue being damaged.