Certain factors can influence when your menopause might occur, including genes
The average age for menopause in the UK is 51, but it is exactly that – an average.
Menopause before 45 is known as an early menopause, while menopause before the age of 40 is known as premature ovarian insufficiency (POI). POI affects about 4 in 100 women under the age of 40, and at least 1 in 1,000 women under 30 [1]. Even girls in their teens can be perimenopausal or menopausal.
While there is no definitive answer for when the menopause will happen for you, sometimes your genes, including when your mum experienced menopause, can give an indication of when it may happen for you, but not always.
RELATED: Am I too young to be menopausal?
Do genes influence menopause timing?
This family link has been explored in research over the decades. In 1995, a study looked at the likelihood of an early menopause in women with and without a family history of early menopause – defined as younger than 46 for the purposes of the study. Overall, 37.5% of early menopause cases reported a family history of menopause before age 46 in a mother, sister, aunt or grandmother. Risk for early menopause associated with family history was greatest for those who had a sister who’d had an earlier menopause [2].
In 2024, two studies of more than 100,000 women identified several genes that can impact the timing of menopause [3]. Researchers found that when women only have one working copy of the four new genes identified (genes come in pairs), they experience menopause 2-5.5 years earlier than average.
It’s worth remembering that other factors that can influence when you experience menopause, including certain types of surgery, radiotherapy to the pelvic area and some types of chemotherapy drugs used to treat cancer.
In addition, women who have autoimmune diseases – including Addison’s disease, thyroid disease, type 1 diabetes and coeliac disease – are more likely to have POI. Genetic conditions such as fragile X syndrome and Turner syndrome may also lead to POI, but this is very rare and, if it does occur, it is more likely in much younger women.
RELATED: What is premature ovarian insufficiency (POI)?
What’s the bottom line?
While there is no definitive way to predict when you will experience menopause, genes can play a part, so it worth asking female family members about their menopause.
You could ask questions such as:
• when did they become menopausal?
• what sort of symptoms did they experience?
• can they remember when other female family members became menopausal, such as their own mother, grandmother, sister or aunt?
RELATED: Early menopause and hormones in younger women Q&A
