Does starting your periods late as teen mean that you will go through the menopause early?

[ClairB73]

I read when I was younger that if you don't start having your periods until quite late on, then you are more likely to go through the menopause at a much earlier age.  I just wondered if any one else had come across this or if it is just a myth?

I was 15 and a half when I had my first small bleed and 16 when my periods started regularly.  I am now 35 and because of reading that, I have always been convinced that I am going to go through the meopause early.  I would love to hear that I am totally wrong!

Thanks!

[LisaH1960]

Hi Clair,

Glad that the doc gave you the good news. I've heard other women say that they wish they'd go into meno earlier just to be done with the periods.

Take care!
Lisa

[ClairB73]

Well I did ask my doctor and she said that its not true and if anything the reverse is in fact true and that if you start your periods later then you tend to go through the menopause later.  At least that answers that question then!

[LisaH1960]

Hi Clair!

I don’t recall reading anything talking specifically about this, but from what I have read, it seems that the time that a women starts peri is related to the time when she begins to run low on viable eggs, which supposedly kicks up the FSH levels, and as the eggs are depleted, estrogen levels decline. If my understanding is correct (and that’s a big IF), then having your first period later would seem to imply that you’d enter peri when you are older, rather than younger.

You might also be interested in an article I just read on a study of 1.3 million women led by Oxford University. They found that women who had their first period BEFORE age 11 were 9% more likely to need hip replacement surgery, and 15% more likely to need knee replacement surgery. Good news for you!

Other significant variables that they found were the number of childbirths, and the use of HRT:

Each successive child born increased the probability of needing hip replacement by 2%, and that of knee replacement by 8%.

The most shocking of all was the effects that HRT had. I quote the article:

“Although previous use of oral contraceptives did not affect the risk of joint surgery, current use of HRT compared to never using HRT boosted the chances of a hip replacement by 38% and of a knee replacement by 58%.”

Wow! Well, as they say, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

Lisa