Lifestyle among factors affecting natural onset of menopause

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 22

The average age of menopause in women is 50 years, with only 1 per cent of women menstruating after the age of 60. Off late however, the number of women reaching menopause under 40 years of age was on the rise, said Dr Jasmine Kaur, a fertility consultant at Nova IVI Fertility while addressing the media at a press meet on Thursday.

Defining the premature ovarian failure (POF) in brief, she said the menopause or the complete depletion of the ovarian reserve before the age of 35 was commonly termed as “premature ovarian failure or premature ovarian insufficiency.” She cited hereditary, lifestyle and environmental factors as the common reasons affecting the natural onset of menopause.

She further said studies have reported that nearly one to two per cent of Indian women experienced signs of menopause between the ages of 29 to 34 years. Additionally, this figure went up to eight per cent in cases of women between 35 and 39 years of age.

“Premature ovarian failure (POF) is a condition where there is an age-related physiological decrease in the number of eggs which could impact the chances of pregnancy. It occurs when the normal functioning of the ovaries stops before the age of 35,” she said adding that women could go for egg-freezing and embryo freezing techniques to cope up with the problem.

Commenting on the rise in cases of infertility due to premature ovarian failure Dr Jasmine said: “We have observed that 15 to 20 per cent of all infertility cases reported at our centre are related to low or no egg reserve in women younger than 35 years. If one’s ovaries fail, they don’t produce normal amounts of hormone estrogen or release eggs regularly, thereby impacting conception and leading to infertility sometimes.”

“Reasons for this could be related to the fast-changing lifestyles in city, air and food pollution, improper nutrition, stress and other related factors,” she said adding that it was therefore strongly recommended that young women in their late 20s and early 30s who faced complications in conceiving should immediately visit a fertility expert. Early detection would provide a better opportunity for early intervention.

Symptoms of premature ovarian failure

Some of the major symptoms of primary ovarian insufficiency include irregular menstrual cycles, primary or secondary amenorrhoea, hot flushes, night sweats, loss of libido, etc