There are a variety of causes of a premature menopause. The main ones are:
A premature menopause brings with it all the symptoms of a normally timed menopause such as:
In addition this is happening to you at a time when the last thing you would be expecting is to be going through your menopause. This magnifies the emotional and social issues that everyone going through the menopause has to face.
This can be a difficult period and you can seek support from specialists such as The Daisy Network.
The idea of post menopausal women carrying on with an active sex life used to be considered somewhat bizarre.
But just because that’s the way it’s thought about doesn’t make it so ….. the reality is that many women continue to enjoy, and be fulfilled by, sex long after the menopause.
In fact sex, and the intimacy that goes with it, is an important part of maintaining both your health and the strength of your relationship with your partner. So you should make the most of it!
As with most aspects of the menopause the changes taking place in your body are driven by the changes in your hormones - notably oestrogen - but also testosterone.
Testosterone, more normally associated with hypersexual young males, is also responsible for the sex drive in women and is produced in the ovaries.
During the menopause the production of testosterone reduces and this, in turn, is likely to have an impact on your interest in sex. However testosterone production doesn’t stop completely - and a reduction in interest is not at all the same thing as a lack of interest.
Cast your mind back to your teenage years and your 20’s! You’ll probably remember having a much stronger interest in sex than you did in your 40’s.
This change was because of an adjustment to your hormone levels - but the reduction didn’t mean you lost interest, just rebalanced your life a bit!
The other big hormone change is the reduction of oestrogen. One impact of this is that your mucous tissues become thinner, less elastic and drier. This involves a number of areas of your body - nasal, anal and vaginal lining tissues are all in this category - but clearly the vaginal tissue is, in most cases, the one relevant to your sex life.
The changes mean that the tissues in your vagina aren’t as well lubricated as they were, are less stretchy and are more easily damaged.
And the damage to the tissue can lead to longer term irritation and infections.
Not surprisingly the mix of reduced sexual desire and increased sexual pain is a powerful disincentive to continue with normal sexual activity - especially as the idea of “seeking help” is possibly a bit embarrassing.
The reduction in sexual desire is just that, a reduction. So, once you’ve overcome the discomfort issues, less frequent sex can still be enjoyable sex.
It’s quite likely that your partner will also be experiencing a slow down in their desire for sex – it may be that a slightly slower pace might suit you both!
There are several options available to you to help to deal with the discomfort. Put simply these are:
There is a lot of information on the Web, although a lot of it is written in rather medical terms – there don’t seem to be many sites specifically written and compiled by menopausal women for menopausal women.
We’ve put together a page of links which will take you to the sites we find most useful.
In our survey over half of the respondents said they’d had no advice from anyone or anywhere, which seems amazing and incredible in this era of information overload.
Of those who did over 80% had asked their GP, 45% had used the Web and over 40% had asked friends or family. 25% had used books and 25% magazines. Obviously some had used more that one source.
Our own favourite open sources of information have been:
We’ve also put together a selection of what we consider to be the best books available – and you’ll find these in the Books section.
