Too Young For Perimenopause?

Too Young For Perimenopause?

I'm 38, my partner rolls his eyes and says I'm too young to go through perimenopause. Is this true?

He may be right that 38 is too young for perimenopause however over the past 20 years as a clinical hormone coach, I've seen the median age of perimenopause go down to where it is not unusual for women to experience Stage I symptoms in their late twenties and early thirties. (There are three stages of perimenopause.)

So what is the cause of this age decline? In order to answer that question, you will have to first address what causes perimenopause in the first place, estrogen deficiency.

It is up to you to be knowledgeable about perimenopause and to articulate it to those who love you so they can understand you. There are plenty of studies in the National Library of Medicine that indicate the lowering age of perimenopause in recent years. I have seen this first-hand in the hormone clinic. About 15 years ago the majority of women who sought hormone balancing treatment were in their forties and fifties. Since that time, the age of women seeking hormone balancing help has been getting younger and younger. It is now common to treat women in their mid to late 20s with hormone therapy. Once it has been determined that a woman's ovaries are not functional enough to produce the amount of estrogen and progesterone to ovulate and have regular and incident-free menstrual cycles, their only saving grace is to put these women on an advanced HRT system to do the job of what their ovaries are not able to do.

Without enough estrogen and progesterone, no matter how old you are, you will significantly feel it through mental illness diagnoses and physical malfunction. It is not easy to explain to others how cruddy you feel when you don't really know what's going on yourself. This is why it is important for you to understand your body and what it needs to function and thrive.

If you are hormonally deficient, you cannot expect others to fully understand what you are talking about or how you feel, especially men. Other women may understand but that doesn't mean you have to continue feeling so horrible. 

A statistic from the North American Menopause Society is that by 2025, more than 1 billion women around the world will be post-menopausal.  This does not have to be the case. You have more control when you enter into menopause, if at all than you think.

There is no reason you have to live with perimenopause no matter how old you are. Perimenopause is a preventable and reversible condition for most women if they know what to do and do what it takes.

If you are suffering from perimenopause, early or not, I encourage to you participate in my hormone balancing program. It is in this program that I set you up for optimal hormone balance and coach you through the hormone balancing process to your Hormone Sweet Spot^™.

_Reference: 

_{Burger HG, Hale GE, Dennerstein L, Robertson DM. Cycle and hormone changes during perimenopause: the key role of ovarian function. Menopause. 2008 Jul-Aug;15(4 Pt 1):603-12.}