How Long Does Menopause Last?

QUESTION: How long does menopause last?

RESPONSE: I'm deeply sorry to say (I know you don't want to hear it) that some women will experience anything from mildly annoying to intensely aggravating signs and symptoms of menopause for many years. Some women report that they have been in perimenopause for a decade or more.

A few women still have some of the symptoms even after menopause has been reached.

However, each woman’s menopause and her experience in intensity and duration of menopause is unique. The best predictor of what your menopause will be like is your mother's menopause in terms of the age in which she entered menopause and the duration of her perimenopause.

The biggest difference is between women who have a natural menopause, and those who have an early or surgically induced menopause, the latter often requiring extra care and treatment.

Natural menopause tends to be milder in nature than induced menopause because your body will have more time to adjust to the changes in hormones.

Perimenopause usually starts during a woman’s mid-forties (although there are many exceptions in which it starts earlier or later), and usually ends once a woman reaches menopause when her period has stopped for a full year. The average age of menopause is 51 years and 4 months.

Some women only notice irregular periods, while others experience hot flashes, insomnia, vaginal dryness, changes in skin tone, dry itchy skin, mood and memory changes, fatigue, hair growth and loss in all the wrong places and more.

Conclusion

The most common statistic I found was that menopausal symptoms will last on average (with wildly different experiences for many women) 3 to 5 years. However, there are four stages of menopause that you may be interested in knowing more about.

If you are considering an attempt to shorten or lessen your symptoms through hormone replacement therapy, watch this: