A Few Words About Early Menopause...

And it didn't have anything to do with me, since I was still much too young. That's what I thought -- but I was wrong.

At the age of 38, I learned I was going through menopause. In fact, I was well into menopause and had been experiencing ovarian failure for many years. Menopause -- the cycle in a woman's life when her ovaries stop producing eggs, when her periods begin to stop, when her hormone levels shift. Menopause -- something that typically happens at about age 51.

But menopause can and does happen to millions of women well before the "normal" age. Actually, I was one of the older women who has gone through this. Many women experience early menopause -- or premature ovarian failure -- in their 20s, even in their teens.

According to recent medical studies, approximately eight out of every 100 American women of childbearing years -- about 3.9 million women -- go through natural menopause before the age of 40. A similarly high number enter menopause early due to surgery (removal of the uterus and/or ovaries) or due to chemotherapy or radiation treatment for cancer.

Early or premature menopause, then, isn't nearly as rare as you might think. All things considered, it's a relatively common condition... but one with uncommon consequences. There is more information on the different causes -- and on what exactly early menopause can be on this site -- in What Is Early Menopause? and the Causes of Early Menopause.

But regardless of the cause, the effect on your life is immense: You're in your 20s or 30s -- still a young woman by age standards -- or even in your teens....and you're facing something that usually would have happened decades down the road. You're dealing with the physical effects of menopause -- hot flashes, mood swings, anxiety -- and you're dealing with the emotional side effects of entering menopause so many years earlier than normal -- feeling out of synch with your peers, coping with the depression that comes when you realize your reproductive years are over before you ever dreamed. It's a double whammy: your body is going through immense changes and your psyche, your self-image, is rocked. And unlike older women who go through menopause at the "normal" time, you're completely unprepared. Early menopause usually comes completely out of the blue.

This web site -- and the book I've written -- are designed to help you cope with this unexpected change.

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