12/11/2025
What Every Woman Should Know on Early Menopause
Early age menopause (EM) and premature menopause (PM) refer to menopause that occurs earlier than the normal menopausal age.
Early menopause (EM): occurs between ages 40–45.
Premature menopause (PM): occurs before age 40, and in some cases can happen before age 30 (NHS, 2022).
The prevalence of early menopause was estimated in 2019 to be 12% of women with menopausal symptoms worldwide, higher in countries with medium and low Human Development Index (HDI) and lower in high HDI countries (Golezar et al., 2019).
Earlier data (Faubion et al., 2015) estimated that about 5% of women aged 40–45 experience early menopause, and around 1% younger than 40 experience premature menopause.
Causes
EM and PM can occur in women treated for ovarian cancer or who have undergone surgical or medical interventions.
Causes may be inherited, genetic, congenital, or environmental. Premature menopause may also be known as premature ovarian failure (POF) or premature ovarian insufficiency (POI).
POI can still involve some menstrual activity and may represent the beginning of premature menopause (Hillard et al., 2017).
About 74% of POI cases are idiopathic, and up to 7% are genetic, often linked to X chromosome abnormalities.
POI may also be autoimmune-related, associated with Hashimoto’s, Graves’, and other thyroid disorders.
Other related illnesses include Addison’s disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Crohn’s disease (Szeliga et al., 2021).
Environmental factors such as smoking and pesticide exposure are also risks (Vabre et al., 2017).
Symptoms and Health Impact
Menopausal symptoms in PM are generally the same as in normal menopause, but they may appear earlier, with a higher rate and more severe cognitive and mental symptoms such as depression and anxiety (Faubion et al., 2015; Sochocka et al., 2023b).
A premature decline in estrogen can increase the risk of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, Parkinsonism, midlife diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease (Sochocka et al., 2023b).
What can we do?
Don't ignore the symptoms
Talk to your GP about Menopause Clinics
See a dietitian specialising in women's health or complementary health practitioner
- you can always contact me privately