Can you go through menopause in your 20s? Experts explain what you need to know

Blackboard with text "Menopause". (Courtesy/iStockphoto) Picture this, you are in your late twenties, you have been having irregular periods that disappear after 6 months. You have run several pregnancy tests to rule out being pregnant, and all of them came back negative. You are also experiencing hot flashes, mood swings, and sometimes feeling very hot or very cold. When you confided in a friend, she joked that you might be going through menopause. But you are barely 30 years old, so you rule out menopause. Well, one per cent of women start experiencing the symptoms of menopause before they turn 40. The average age for women to start experiencing menopause is 51, according to Dr Geoffrey Wahome, an Obstetric Gynaecologist at Advent Clinic Nakuru. He says the process begins with perimenopause, which he terms as a period of natural decline in the reproductive hormones. Dr Wahome adds that Women usually experience perimenopausal symptoms, such as irregular periods and hot flashes, in their 40s. According to the experts, a woman is considered to be fully menopausal after missing 12 consecutive periods. Premature or early menopause is when a woman reaches menopause before turning 40. This condition is triggered by premature ovarian failure, which means that a woman's ovaries have stopped working before the right age. This could be because of medical procedures such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatments. Some women can develop ovarian failure as early as in their teenage years, while others develop the condition in their 20s and 30s. The terms premature menopause and premenopausal Ovarian failure are often used interchangeably. However, POF can be intermittent, meaning that a woman suffering from the condition might still be able to get pregnant, especially through technologies such as IVF. But once a woman has missed 12 straight periods, there's no chance of getting pregnant. When a woman undergoes premature menopause, it might be difficult to single out the exact causes. Some 90 percent of the cases, a woman never gets to know what caused her to have premature menopause. Some of the main In some cases, premature menopause is brought on by surgical removal of the ovaries. This procedure is usually done when a woman has a BRCA gene mutation which can lead to cancer of the reproductive system. For instance when a patient under goes this type of procedure after testing positive for cancer indicators they could experience early menopause. Ovary removal results in a dramatic drop in oestrogen and other female hormones, which brings on premature menopause. If your mother, grandmother, or sister has experienced premature menopause, you're at an increased risk of experiencing it too. Premature menopause seems to have some genetic causes. A 2011 study published the Journal of Inherited Metabolic Disease found that in 28 per cent of premature menopause cases have genetic origins. You might also have premature menopause if you have genetic disorders such as Fragile X syndrome, the most common form of inherited intellectual impairment. If your genes have the gene mutation, even if you don't have Fragile X syndrome, you might have primary ovarian insufficiency, which leads to premature menopause This genetic disorder is responsible for one in 33 cases of premature menopause, according to a report by the American National institute of Health. Turner Syndrome, where a woman has only one X chromosome, is a genetic disorder that also causes premature menopause. Women with autoimmune disorders are also at increased risk of experiencing premature menopause. Autoimmune disorders such as thyroiditis (which causes inflammation of the thyroid gland) and Addison's Disease (which causes the adrenal glands to not produce enough hormones, have been linked to premature menopause. These autoimmune disorders can cause your immune system to attack the follicles in your ovaries, messing up with their normal function and leading to early menopause. Exposure to toxins contained in cigarette smoke and pesticides can often casue ovarian failure. A woman is usually born with enough primordial follicles to last her throughout her natural reproductive age. However, exposure to toxins can deplete these follicles prematurely, leading to Ovarian failure. Just like environmental toxins, cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation can also damage the genetic material in a woman's ovaries. Factors such as the type of drug and the dose of radiation, the area of the body radiated, and your age at the time of treatment determine the level of damage to your ovaries. Some women might develop premature menopause years after getting cancer treatment, while others might never develop premenopausal ovarian failure.

Can you go through menopause in your 20s? Experts explain what you need to know

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Can you go through menopause in your 20s? Experts explain what you need to know

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