What Age Does Menopause Start?

Hotflashes and Teenagers: What's Wrong with This Picture?

I'm trying very hard to understand this generation. They have adjusted the timetable for childbearing so that menopause and teaching a sixteen-year-old how to drive a car will occur in the same week. ~Erma Bombeck

The Change at Mid-Life

In the Western world, the most typical age range for menopause (last period) is between the ages of 45 and 55[1] and the average age for last period ever is 51 years[2]. In some developing countries however, such as India and the Philippines, the median age of natural menopause is considerably earlier, at 44 years[3].

In the Western World, a woman's last period ever occurring between the ages of 55 to 60 is known as a "late menopause". An "early menopause" is defined as having the final period somewhere between the age of 40 to 45.(Reference: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menopause, 09/23/09)

Springtime and the Second Half

Dr. Christina Northrup (physician and author, expert in Women's Health) talks about menopause as the "springtime" of our second half--the second half of our lives, that is. Since women are likely to live 30-40 years after menopause, there is some reason to hope that those next forty years after reproduction and childbearing will be generative in a different way.

Here is her very hopeful and clear vision of mid-life:

"Dr. Joan Boreysenko refers to the years between the ages of forty-two and forty-nine as the 'midlife metamorphosis', when a woman begins in earnest to create her life in such a way that her innermost values are lived out in her everyday activities. During this stage, she is more apt to tell the truth than ever before in her life and less apt to make excuses for others. many women quest for peace of mind against a background of turmoil and change as they end twenty-year marriages, have affairs, get left by their partners, face the empty nest, and explore new facets of their identity.
It is during this stage that a woman is most likely to begin experienceing skipped periods and the early stages of hormonal changes, making this a perfect time to start improving and building on the health that will sustain her for the rest of her life."

(Reference: Northrup, p. 516-517.)

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