All these small, large, disturbances reflect changes in the woman's hormonal structure.
Mild endocrine dysfunctions begin to decrease fertility already around the age of 30-35 and it is precisely in this phase of life that the first irregular cycles can appear; for the same reason, starting from this age the search for a child is generally more difficult.
, a condition in which the symptoms and disorders described above are generally more intense and annoying than normal.The most common cause of premature menopause is the surgical removal of the ovaries, which is necessary, for example, in the presence of ovarian cysts or tumors.
The treatment of certain cancers, for example through radiotherapy or chemotherapy, is also a frequent cause of premature menopause.
Then there are a whole series of pathological conditions, on an immune, infectious, tumor, genetic and endocrine basis, which can lead to the same result.
Although to a lesser extent, smoking has also been shown to lower the age of menopause, by approximately a couple of years.
; this tumor form, in fact, is directly correlated to the duration of exposure of the breast tissue to estrogen. they undergo an involutionary process, while others remain dormant until puberty. From this moment on, the woman begins to draw on her own supply of egg cells, after which she will enter menopause.At each cycle, the maturation processes involve several follicles, but are completed only for one, while the others regress rapidly.
There does not seem to be a certain correlation between the age of onset of the first menstruation, called menarche, and the age of menopause; it is therefore not certain that a woman with precocious puberty must necessarily lose her fertility prematurely, on the contrary.
On the contrary, it has been shown, again due to the predisposing effect of estrogens, that an early menarche (menarche = onset of the first menstruation) is accompanied by an increased risk of developing breast cancer.
It has been said that, statistically speaking, menopause occurs on average around the age of 51.
As anticipated, however, many women have menstrual irregularities of varying magnitude already in the years preceding their onset. Thus, a less definable period is identified chronologically and called premenopause (or perimenopause); less definable because in this regard there is a very large individual variability; in some women, for example, these small disorders occur sporadically even 5 or 6 years before the definitive disappearance of the cycle, while in others the symptoms are particularly nuanced and much closer to the definitive entry into menopause.
