#105 Understanding Early Onset Menopause

Kylie: [00:00:00] Welcome back to episode of the Hormone Hub Podcast, where we talk all things perimenopause, menopause, and have the conversations no one else is having. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode.

Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Hormone Hub Podcast. I’m your host, Kylie Pinwill. And today thought I’d talk about something. I haven’t really on the podcast talked about. You know We talk a lot about perimenopause. We talk about a lot about menopause, but early onset menopause. This is something that a hundred percent affects a lot of women.

And, I think it’s just something that we’re not talking about enough. So I thought I’d clear up some of the myths and, where you can get help and what you can do if you’re suspecting early onset menopause. We know that menopause is when you officially haven’t had a period for a year.

We know that perimenopause [00:01:00] effectively is the two to 10 years before menopause. So, we’re pretty clear on what that is, but what about premature menopause? So premature menopause is when your final period happens and you are under the age of 40. And then early menopause is when your final period happens, anywhere between the age of 40 to 45.

So, the average age in Australia for menopause is 51. But, so 45 to 55 is kind of considered normal. So just to sort of like Give you a bit of a time frame. So under 40 premature early menopause between 40, 45, I guess, whatever normal for whatever normal is between 45 and 55.

You might be under the age 45 and you might be having, hot flushes, night sweats, obviously the absence of a menstrual cycle or irregular cycles. You might be experiencing some, vaginal [00:02:00] dryness. So, maybe you’re sort of starting to, to notice. And I think the unfortunate thing is, a lot of women are told, we obviously go off to our GP and, we’re told, oh, you’re too young for menopause.

And it’s crazy. And I, I really wish that there is more education. Some doctors are all over it a hundred percent, but there’s seems to be a lot of doctors who just aren’t. And I think that the trouble in diagnosing early onset menopause is because, yeah, this assumption that you’re too young there’s also potentially a crossover with other sort of conditions like polycystic ovaries amenorrhea.

So, if you’ve lost your periods due to. Under eating and over training any is like thyroid conditions, there’s a lot that can potentially cross over with. So we don’t always think when we’re under the age of 45, that it could be menopause. Also if you’re on a Marina, it’s hard to tell if you’re on the pill, it’s hard to tell.

But it’s, it’s [00:03:00] good to, just be aware that maybe, it is early for you now. What it is classified as is premature ovarian insufficiency. This is primarily what can drive or cause premature and early menopause. Often your period stops suddenly at an earlier than expected age. And the causes aren’t always clear. So often is the case, as with all things when it comes to women’s health in about 60 percent of women is no actual cause.

So what we want to have a look at is, some of the first symptoms of, premature ovarian insufficiency. We’re looking at irregular periods. We’re looking at, if we come off the pill, periods just don’t return. And for some women, in their early forties, they still want to fall pregnant and it’s just that inability to fall pregnant.

So definitely, if you’re younger than 45, if you haven’t had your period for more than three [00:04:00] months and you’re not on hormonal contraception, definitely, go and talk to your doctor. The first port of call I would do is, would be a pregnancy test. Like, is there a possibility that you’re pregnant?

The next step would be to get your hormones tested. Now, I don’t generally recommend Hormone testing to see where you’re at in perimenopause because our hormones are fluctuating. But if you are in menopause, blood tests will 100 percent confirm that. So we’re looking at, estrogen, we’re looking at prolactin, we’re looking at FSH, which is follicle stimulating hormone, and there’s some pretty good indicators and LH, which is your luteinizing hormone.

They’re pretty much going to tell you If you’re in menopause or not. So after, or certainly a vaginal or an internal ultrasound just to sort of check that you’re, or look for evidence that your ovaries are functioning as well. So that’s, that’s kind of like the next step.

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Kylie: So why does it happen for some women and, not for others? If we think, we’re starting to get our periods younger. You are more likely to have premature or early menopause. [00:06:00] If you started your periods before the age of 11, it makes sense, doesn’t it? We’re just shifting that whole frame early.

There are girls out there who are getting their periods at sort of eight, nine, 10, 11 years of age. So it is likely and it makes sense that. They would go through menopause earlier. If you have a family history of premature or early menopause smokers, if you’ve been through cancer treatment if you’ve had surgery previously on your ovaries, this can all, you know, trigger that early menopause.

Also, if you have like metabolic disorders or you’ve had a childhood infection that can impact it as well and certainly autoimmune conditions. So thyroid conditions, type 1 diabetes, Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, this can all put you in that, that higher risk category or not high risk, but, that your premature ovarian Insufficiency was triggered by your autoimmune condition.[00:07:00]

So, what are your options? I’m not looking at this as from a, you know, do we want to fall pregnant lens, looking at more from a, are there long term health risks if you’ve had premature or early menopause and certainly, depending on the cause or the reason, if they have one we can kind of counter this with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy as well.

But it’s good to be aware that estrogen is very protective of our health, so it protects our cardiovascular system, so reduces the risk of, heart attacks and things like that once we’ve been through menopause. It also protects us from the impacts of insulin, so it helps us regulate our insulin, so once we’ve been through menopause, we are more likely You’re more susceptible to the effects of insulin osteoporosis.

That’s sort of one we hear all the time. And, certainly estrogen protects our bone health and there are [00:08:00] studies coming out about dementia as well. So estrogen is very protective of our cognitive, functions and, helps prevent dementia in the long term.

Certainly, we can’t necessarily slow down. So just like we can’t change the way we go through puberty. We can’t change our experience of conception or fertility or, pregnancy or breastfeeding. Like it’s very individual, but definitely, women who experience premature or early menopause can be at greater risk of depression, anxiety, mood changes because there’s a certain grief as well. So it can be upsetting. And I think it’s normal to feel that, that sadness and a sense of loss. You can have mixed feelings about your body image. Just your femininity and your sexuality as well.

So not everyone is going through menopause at the same time, or in the same way. So just like, we all went through, like I said earlier, puberty at different [00:09:00] ages, we had different experiences.

Our menstrual history is all vastly different. We all have different sort of periods. And I think the way we go through menopause is, similar to the way we go through our menstrual menstruating life is, it is all different for all of us. So definitely, where to start, if you suspect you might be in early menopause is go and find a GP who is going to listen to you.

So if you get dismissed and you’re being told that you’re too young for menopause, find another GP, like someone who is going to listen and someone who is going to take those steps and, actually, look into it for you because, you don’t want to be dismissed.

I think, what we should all know is, it is a natural phase of a woman’s life. And like I said, there can be a period of grief. But it’s also empowering for a lot of women. It’s a new chapter. There’s a sense of freedom. So supporting ourselves with, good [00:10:00] nutrition, supporting ourselves with good lifestyle habits.

 Are we feeding our body? Well, are we maintaining a healthy body weight? Are we moving our body on a regular basis? Are we learning the skills to manage stress, and I think regardless of what our experience is, these are critical, during this time, because we can take go on HRT. We can take antidepressants. There’s no magic pill. We still need those foundations in place. So I hope that was helpful. And yeah, if there is any questions or you would like to book in a hormone help call with me, we can chat about what’s been going on for you.

What are you finding challenging? Where are you not being heard? And then definitely, if it looks like we’re a good fit, we can talk about how we can work together and, or if not, I can always point you in the right direction as well. So I hope you enjoyed this episode and I will talk to you very soon.

 Thank you for taking the time to listen today. You can head on over to the show notes [00:11:00] at kyliepinwill.com/podcast where you’ll find all the links. Now, before we go, it would mean the world to me if you’d head on over to your favorite podcast channel, subscribe and leave a review. Don’t forget to share it with your friends.

Then stay tuned for next week’s episode and I can’t wait to see you then.