Childless women face higher risk of early menopause, study says

Women who never have children are at far greater risk of suffering an early menopause, a major study suggests.

The risk of reaching the menopause before the age of 40 more than doubles among women if they have never been pregnant and never had children, experts found.

And they are 32 per cent more likely to start the menopause between the ages of 40 and 44.

Early menopause is known to increase the risk of poor health in later life, putting women at higher risk of heart attacks, strokes, type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis.

Last night experts called for women who have had no children by the age of 35 to be warned of the chance of an early menopause – and for their doctors to put ‘early preventative strategies and clinical surveillance’ in place to reduce their risk of heart disease and other chronic conditions.

The menopause, which occurs on average at the age of 51, happens when the body stops naturally producing oestrogen and other sex hormones.

Usually 2 per cent of women undergo the menopause before turning 40, with 7.6 per cent undergoing it between 40 and 44.

The new study involved 51,000 women who had already been through the menopause. 

It showed that they were more likely to have had an early menopause if they had not had children.

The researchers, from University College London and the University of Queensland, found women who had never been pregnant were 2.26 times as likely to hit the menopause before the age of 40 as women who had given birth to two children.

They were also 1.32 times as likely to have the menopause before the age of 44.

The researchers stressed that the absolute risk remained relatively low – increasing from 2 per cent to about 4.5 per cent for pre-40 menopause and from 7.6 per cent to 10 per cent for pre-44 menopause.

But they said this increase was enough to herald a change in health policy.

The findings, published in the journal Human Reproduction, revealed women who had started puberty before the age of 11 were at greater risk of an early menopause. 

And for women who had an early puberty and remained childless, the risk increased by more than five-fold.

Lead author Professor Gita Mishra, of the University of Queensland, said: ‘If the findings from our study were incorporated into clinical guidelines for advising childless women from around the age of 35 who had their first period aged 11 or younger, clinicians could gain valuable time to prepare these women for the possibility of ... early menopause.

‘In addition, they could consider early strategies for preventing and detecting chronic conditions that are linked to earlier menopause, such as heart disease.’

The average age of first-time mothers in England and Wales is 28.6, according to the latest figures from 2014, up from 23.5 in 1970. 

And the proportion of over-40s mothers has trebled from 4.9 per 1,000 in 1984 to 14.7 per 1,000 in 2014.

Experts are unsure exactly why there is such a strong link between childlessness and the age of menopause. 

But they suspect the 12 per cent of women in their study who never had a child may have remained childless because of underlying fertility problems, which may also have an impact on the age at which the menopause arrives. 

One theory is that being pregnant protects against early menopause because of the hormonal impact. However there is no evidence that this is the case.

Dr Gillian Lockwood, of Midland Fertility in Tamworth, Staffordshire, said women can get clues as to their own reproductive and menopausal situation from their mother’s experience. 

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