According to the latest research, women may be experiencing menopause symptoms well before the universally-expected age.

A normal part of aging for women, the onset of menopause is marked by a complete stopping of the menstrual cycle, signalling the end of a woman’s reproductive capability.

In addition to periods stopping, menopause signals the body’s ovaries to stop producing the female hormone estrogen, contributing to a range of physical and emotional symptoms. Typically, the onset of menopause is widely considered to occur from around the age of 45, but new research suggests a surprising number of women may be experiencing menopause-related symptoms from as early as age 30. 

Published in the journal Nature, the study aims to explore the presence and severity of perimenopause symptoms in women as young as 30. Working with the period tracking app Flo, the research team surveyed 4,432 women in the US about standard medical menopause symptoms. 

The survey required women to score their experience on a scale of zero to four and note any signs or known symptoms of menopause, such as hot flushes, brain fog and infertility. Symptoms scored with a zero were understandably absent, while any scored with a four were considered to be severe.

After analysing the participants’ scores, the team discovered 55.4 per cent of women aged 30 to 35 scored Analysing the results the authors found that the scores of 55.4 per cent of women aged 30 to 35 were high enough to meet the criteria for moderate or severe menopause symptoms. 

Women aged 36 to 40 were found to have an even higher instance of menopause symptoms, with 64.3 per cent meeting the criteria for moderate to severe menopause.

Regardless of the overwhelming number of women experiencing menopause-related symptoms during their 30s and 40s, over 90 per cent of all participants had not consulted a health professional about their experience.

The menopause symptoms younger women are experiencing

One of the major markers of menopause – infertility – is already widely considered to wane during a woman’s 30s. For women exhibiting perimenopause or menopause symptoms at a younger age due to fluctuating hormones, the struggle to conceive is expected to be far greater. 

In terms of the types of menopause symptoms younger women in the study reported experiencing, the research team found a greater prevalence of mental health-related symptoms, such as brain fog, anxiety, depression and irritability. 

These psychological symptoms were found to take hold years before the onset of physical symptoms such as vaginal dryness and hot flushes. 

The shift from psychological to physical symptoms

While the onset of mental health-related menopause symptoms began to occur in many women as young as 30, the severity of such symptoms reportedly peaked in women aged 41 to 45. 

The same symptoms were found to largely disappear in women aged 56 and above. Women aged 51 and over, however, reported the highest instances of physical symptoms of menopause, such as hot flushes and vaginal dryness. 

“This study is important because it plots a trajectory of perimenopausal symptoms that tells us what symptoms we can expect when and alerts us to the fact that women are experiencing perimenopausal symptoms earlier than we expected,” explains Dr Jennifer Payne, an expert in reproductive psychiatry at the University of Virginia Health System and one of the study’s co-authors.

Limitations of the study

While the findings of the study are no doubt important for our overall understanding of menopause and how it manifests in different people, there are a few limitations to the research that should not be overlooked. 

Firstly, the data was gathered using a considerably small sample size, so will not accurately reflect the entire female population. In addition to this, the survey responses were gathered using a self-reporting method, meaning there is no way of verifying the accuracy of each participant's scaling of symptoms. 

It is also possible – and likely – that many reported symptoms, such as anxiety, bladder issues and depression, were caused by an unrelated medical condition, not menopause.