Statistical
data about this, are, of course, very scarce and difficult to obtain.
However,
Dr. Kisch1 states that some statistical data
were known to him showing that the average age of women of different nationalities
varies somewhat. Rearranged from his text in order, figures from some countries
are as follows in the table to the right.
|
Average age
of menopause
|
Country
|
49.4 years
|
Lapland
|
48.9 years
|
Norway
|
47.0 years
|
Germany
|
46.1 years
|
England
|
44.0 years
|
Russia
|
42.2 years
|
Austria
|
|
Dr.
Kisch quotes several medical men who reported cases of very early menopause,
such as 21, 22, 23, 25 and 27 years of age. The earliest of which I have
any personal knowledge is twenty-seven.
Contrasted with
this is the late menstruation which, I imagine, is becoming increasingly
common, at any rate to fifty-five or fifty-six. Dr. Kisch cites from other
authorities, cases of menstruation continuing till the age of 65, 70 and
72. |
The Medical Women's
Federation investigated a thousand women and tabulated their results in
the Lancet, in 1933 as follows: |
Age in years
|
Married
|
Single
|
Total Women
|
38
|
13
|
3
|
16
|
39
|
12
|
2
|
14
|
40
|
63
|
29
|
92
|
41
|
26
|
9
|
35
|
42
|
38
|
11
|
49
|
43
|
39
|
16
|
55
|
44
|
21
|
7
|
28
|
45
|
71
|
25
|
96
|
46
|
48
|
19
|
67
|
47
|
39
|
18
|
57
|
48
|
61
|
30
|
91
|
49
|
56
|
23
|
79
|
50
|
114
|
53
|
167
|
51
|
26
|
16
|
42
|
52
|
55
|
23
|
78
|
38—52
|
682
|
284
|
966
|
|
Of 455 women personally
observed by Dr. Kisch, the relative numbers who experienced the menopause
at different ages was as follows:
Menopause at
age
|
# of women
|
%
|
35—40
|
48
|
10.5 |
40—45
|
141
|
13.4 |
45—50
|
177
|
38.9 |
50—55
|
89
|
19.6 |
Most of these women
were of German nationality |
Dr.
Krieger, working out statistics from cases cited by various authors, compiled
some percentage figures from over two thousand cases of women of various
nationalities as follows:
Menopause at
age
|
% of women.
|
35—40 years
|
11.87
|
40—45
|
25.97
|
45—50
|
41.03
|
50—55
|
14.58
|
before 35 or
after 55
|
6.54
|
|
|
Relationship
of age of first menstruation to age of menopause
Age
of menarche related to age of menopause? |
Dr.
Kisch generalises on the relation between the age of onset of menstruation
and the age at which it ceases. He says: “In general, and climatic influence
apart, it may be said that the earlier in any woman the age at which menstruation
first occurs, the later will be the age at which menstruation ceases.”I
think he is definitely wrong about this. 2
He
was probably unaware of the existence of the type of woman which I have
observed and who is what I called the “late-maturing” type of woman in
Radiant Motherhood, published in 1920.
This point, also,
is overlooked by Dr. Emil Novak and the authors he quotes, who profess
to predict the age at which the menopause “should normally occur” from
the date of the first appearance of menstruation.They build this presumption
up on the (nonproven) hypothesis that the earlier menstruation arrives
the longer it will stay. Hence, to pick out three examples to illustrate
the idea, we find in their table the following estimates.
Onset of menstruation
|
Year in which
the menopause should occur
|
In the 10th
year
|
50th to 52nd
year
|
In the 16th
year
|
38th to 40th
year
|
In the 20th
year
|
30th to 32nd
year
|
|
Early/late
maturing types |
Though this may
be roughly true of many women in what I call the “early maturing” type,
I flatly contradict it as being built up on an unsound basis for the more
highly evolved “late maturing” type, described by me in Chap. XV of my
book Radiant Motherhood, 1924, and in subsequent editions. Of the late-maturing
type I take two cases at random:
Onset of menstruation
|
Menopause(actually
not theoretically)
|
In the 18th
year
|
60thyear
|
In the 16th
year
|
56thyear
|
These were fully sexed
women of normal married experience and offer what perhaps Dr. Novak and
Dr. Gallant would consider “exceptions” to their ideas, but which in my
opinion are perfectly normal for their own physiological type and that
is the late-maturing, strongly healthily sexed advanced woman, whom I believe
to be truly in the van of human evolution. |
Late
menarche not necessarily predictive of early menopause |
Hence I do not agree
with a statement by the American Dr. E. B. Lowry, M.D., who says: “As a
rule, a woman who commences to menstruate at an early age continues to
do so until a late age, while with a woman who commences to menstruate
late, the change comes early.” Many other authors accept this view, but
in my opinion this generalisation is true only of the usually sexed woman
as contrasted with the woman in whom sex is rather less developed or who
is slightly or definitely undersexed, and not of the late maturing type.
In contrast with
what Dr. Lowry says, in what I call the “late maturing” type, her late
menstruation tallying with her long childhood does not lead to the “change”
coming early but to a deferred date, and she it is who may have her motherhood
very late, and enjoy a long continued sex vitality. |
Pitiful
lack of depth in medical records |
General medical
records are so pitifully incomplete, citing cases without the very facts
which would lend depth and interest to their records, that I cannot say
whether those instances of motherhood in the sixties cited on p. 175 are
correlated with the other physiological characteristics or not, as the
records tell one nothing on these interesting points.
If a knowledge of
mankind is ever taken seriously, vitally interesting studies of the different
types of womanhood as well as manhood should be made and data recorded
on these and a number of other points. I am confident that they will indicate
not only racial differences, crudely so-called, but differences of individual
stocks and that the late maturing sexually vital type of woman is in the
van of evolution. |
Late menopause advantageous
to late marriages |
Late Menopause is
a feature of some interest and advantage, especially in modern life where
social conditions so often enforce late marriage on women who want to be
mothers. |
Kisch,
E.H.: THE SEXUAL LIFE OF WOMAN IN ITS PHYSIOLOGICAL, PATHOLOGICAL AND HYGIENIC
ASPECTS, 1910. 680pp. with text illustrations.
1997
update from http://popindex.princeton.edu/browse/v63/n4/j.html
2.63:40572 van Noord,
Paulus A. H.; Dubas, Judith S.; Dorland, Martinus; Boersma, Hilda; te Velde,
Egbert.
Age at natural
menopause in a population-based screening cohort: the role of menarche,
fecundity, and lifestyle factors.
Fertility and Sterility,
Vol. 68, No. 1, Jul 1997. 95-102 pp. New York, New York. In Eng.
The aim of this study
was "to verify whether a population-based hypothesis (age at menarche and
age at natural menopause have an inverse relationship) also applies at
the level of the individual and to investigate what other factors predict
age at natural menopause...[using data for] a cohort of 3,756 Dutch women,
born between 1911 and 1925, participating in a population-based breast
cancer screening program, who experienced a natural menopause....No relation
was found between age at menarche and age at natural menopause. The total
percentage of variance in age at natural menopause explained by multiple
regression including all factors was minimal...."
Correspondence: P.
A. H. van Noord, University of Utrecht, Julius Center for Patient Oriented
Research, P.O. Box 80046/80035, 3508 TA Utrecht, Netherlands. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR). |