Is premature menopause bad? How common is premature menopause?
PREMATURE MENOPAUSE I understand the changes in the menopausal years and the common menopausal symptoms. But I’d like to return to an earlier mention of surgical menopause. What is that? First, let us say that about 9 percent of women experience menopause before the age of 40. This situation is known as premature menopause. Surgical removal of the ovaries (oophorectomy) which results in what is called surgical menopause, or artificial menopause is the most frequent cause of premature menopause.Without ovaries, your body no longer produces estradiol, and menopause immediately begins. In the past, an oophorectomy was usually done along with a hysterectomy (surgical removal of the uterus). However, the practice is less common today, according to Love. Either the ovaries are left intact or only one ovary is removed. Why the switch in medical practice? Your ovaries produce large amounts of estradiol during your reproductive years and smaller but important amounts of other estrog...