Menopause

Going through the menopause early can be very traumatic for some women, especially if they were planning to have children in the future. Early menopause can be due to a number of reasons, some of which are known about in advance i.e. surgery to remove the ovaries, while others remain a secret until menopause actually starts i.e. natural premature menopause.

In cases where a woman knows she will experience early menopause, for example if she is having her ovaries removed or she is undergoing cancer treatment then there may be the option to freeze her eggs so that they can be fertilised and returned to her at a later date. This is often some comfort to young women and although there is no guarantee that IVF will work it often doesn't matter as long as the possibility is still there.

For women who experience natural premature menopause this option normally isn't available as her menopause will only have started because all of her once-viable eggs are no longer suitable for fertilisation and so the ovaries technically shut down. Often women who experience natural premature menopause have close family members, and in particular their mothers, who also had an early menopause and so it may be that eggs can be harvested during their youth for use at a later date. In order to a menopausal women to carry a pregnancy she would also need HRT however if there is the possibility of a child then this is often a viable option.

Apart from the child-bearing aspect there are also a few other aspects to be looked at with regards to life after an early menopause. For example the risks of developing heart disease, osteoporosis and bladder function problems all increase following menopause and if this risk is increased early in life the there is an even higher chance of these conditions occurring.

HRT can help to keep the risks down however HRT has now been found to have a few risks of its own, namely an increased chance of breast, uterine and ovarian cancers. Heart disease and osteoporosis can be helped by eating a nutritious, balanced diet and taking regular exercise however there is no guarantee that the disease can be prevented.

Even with all of these potential complications some women still enjoy the fact that they reach menopause early and look at the positives rather than the negatives. For example, an early menopause means no more monthly menstruation cycle, no more PMS symptoms and no more worries about accidental pregnancies. You can travel where you want, when you want and as much as you want without having to think about when you are due a period or where you can change sanitary wear and you can enjoy sex as much as you want with your partner without worrying if you are protected.

In many ways an early menopause won't affect your life and it may even make it better, especially if you suffer from heavy or irregular periods and awful PMS every month, however there is the problem of not being able to have children in the future and unfortunately this can't easily be solved - regardless of what age you are when you reach menopause. There are other options however e.g. fostering and adoption, and these are well worth looking into.

Menopause And Menstruation |