Early or premature menopause can happen on its own for no clear reason, or it can happen because of certain surgeries, medicines, or health conditions.

Reasons for early or premature menopause can include:

Family history: Women with a family history of early or premature menopause are more likely to have early or premature menopause.

Smoking: Women who smoke may reach menopause as much as two years before nonsmokers. They may also get more severe menopause symptoms. Research suggests that women who have early or premature menopause and smoke die about two years earlier than nonsmoking women.

Chemotherapy or pelvic radiation treatments for cancer: These treatments can damage your ovaries and cause your periods to stop forever or just for a while. You also may have trouble getting pregnant or not be able to get pregnant again. Not all women who have chemotherapy or radiation will go through menopause. The younger a woman is at the time of chemotherapy or radiation, the less likely she is to go through menopause.

Surgery to remove the ovaries: Surgical removal of both ovaries, called a bilateral oophorectomy (OH-fuh-REK-tuh-mee), may cause menopausal symptoms right away. Your periods will stop after this surgery, and your hormone levels will drop quickly. You may have strong menopausal symptoms, like hot flashes and less sexual desire.

Surgery to remove the uterus: Some women who have a hysterectomy, which removes the uterus, can keep their ovaries. If this happens, you will no longer have periods, and you cannot get pregnant. But you will probably not go through menopause right away because your ovaries will continue to make hormones. Later on, you might have natural menopause a year or two earlier than expected.

Certain health conditions:

Autoimmune diseases, such as thyroid disease and rheumatoid arthritis: Although rare, the body’s immune system, which normally fights off diseases, may mistakenly attack the ovaries and keep them from making hormones.
HIV and AIDS: Women with HIV whose infection is not well controlled with medicine may experience early menopause. Women with HIV may also have more severe hot flashes than women without HIV.
Missing chromosomes: Women born with missing chromosomes or problems with chromosomes can go through menopause early. For example, women with the condition called Turner’s syndrome are born without all or part of one X chromosome, so their ovaries do not form normally at birth and their menstrual cycles, including the time around menopause, may not be normal.
Chronic fatigue syndrome: Women with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) have extreme tiredness, weakness, muscle and joint pain, memory loss, headache, unrefreshing sleep, and other symptoms. Research has found that women with ME/CFS are more likely to have early or premature menopause.

Early or Premature Menopause

What is the different between early and premature menopause?

What causes early or premature menopause?

How do I know if I am going through early or premature menopause?

What are the effects of early or premature menopause?

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References and Sources

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What are the effects of early or premature menopause?

References and Sources