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Age of the Onset of the Menopause in Woman
adapted (mainly by reformatting) from the book below
Marie Stopes was the woman who scandalously published a sex education manual in 1918 then followed it up by opening the UK's first Family Planning Clinic in 1921.

In Chapter VI of her later book (opposite) she introduces the topic of age at onset by saying:

"The fascinating, beautiful woman of twentyseven quoted on p. 268, whose menopause was completed at that age is, of course, quite exceptional. Thirty-five would be considered young for an ordinary woman nowadays. The late forties would perhaps be described as the average. The early fifties is the age for the fortunate woman; the late fifties and sixties for the rather exceptional woman if her vitality is very strong and she is of the late maturing type."
general statistics
relationship to age of first menstruation
CHANGE OF LIFE
IN MEN AND WOMEN

by

MARIE CARMICHAEL STOPES
Doctor of Science, London; Doctor of Philosophy, Munich;
Fellow of University College, London; Fellow of the Royal
Society of Literature, and the Linnean and Geological Societies,London; President of The SocietyC.B.C. and Racial Progress

Author of Married Love, etc.
 

Second EDITION
 

PUTNAM
42, GREAT RUSSELL STREET,
LONDON

race
Factors affecting age of onset
There are certain tendencies of race which affect the age at which women experience the menopause. Northern and Anglo-Saxon types tend to be older in years when it arrives than are women of Southern and Oriental races. 
climate
Climate also has some influence on the age of onset, and in hot countries women age earlier. Even women of a northern race dwelling in the hot country tend to experience the same influence.
motherhood
Nursing. It is said by some authors that women who nurse their babies themselves experience a later menopause than those who neglect this primary maternal duty. Childbearing is said to be a factor which postpones the menopause: at the same time in medical books a few pages further on we generally learn that an excessive number of pregnancies coincides with an early menopause, so that the relation of motherhood to menopause is not clear.
weight
Obesity coincides with a tendency to early menopause, though it does not “cause it as some aver.
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). 

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