{
  "id": 435192,
  "title": "Menopause: Can I influence when I enter the menopause?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/10/menopause-kann-ich-beeinflussen-wann-ich-in-die-wechseljahre-komme",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-08-10T03:36:04.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Handelsblatt",
    "slug": "handelsblatt",
    "url": "https://www.handelsblatt.com/technik/medizin/menopause-kann-ich-beeinflussen-wann-ich-in-die-wechseljahre-komme/100246122.html"
  },
  "original_language": "de",
  "account": "When will it be my turn to experience menopause? Many women, including younger ones, ask themselves this question. Partly out of mere curiosity, partly with a view to family planning that has not yet been completed. Around the age of 51 and 52, about half of women have their last menstrual period, known as menopause. This is reported by the \"Frauengesundheitsportal\" of the Federal Institute for Public Health (BIÖG). However, the menstrual cycle can also say goodbye significantly earlier or later.\n\nEven with a few years' notice, the hormonal changes of premenopause, and later perimenopause, begin. There is actually an indication of when it might be one's turn. This is because mothers and daughters often experience menopause at a similar age. \"For personal assessment, the mother's menopause is a useful benchmark, especially if the mother started menopause very early or very late,\" says Wibke Cornelius, a gynecologist in Augsburg. \"However, this value is only a probability, not a fixed prediction.\"\n\nThese factors can bring on menopause earlier. When a woman experiences menopause is primarily determined by genes. This also means: \"The onset of menopause cannot be specifically controlled,\" says Cornelius, who is a member of the Professional Association of Female Physicians and Gynecologists (BVF). However, there are factors that can slightly bring forward the timing of menopause, \"but no more than one to two years,\" says Wibke Cornelius. These include: smoking, high stress, diseases such as diabetes mellitus, surgeries in the area of the uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes.\n\nIn premature menopause, the cause often remains unclear. About 1 percent of women experience premature menopause. This is what doctors like Wibke Cornelius call it \"when the function of the ovaries ceases before the age of 40.\" Affected women then no longer have menstrual periods. This can be a great burden if women have to let go of a desire for children that they can no longer fulfill. 0.3 percent of women experience their last cycle before the age of 35. Even if many affected women are plagued by the question \"Why me?\": \"In many cases of premature menopause, the underlying cause cannot be precisely determined,\" says Cornelius. Again, genes are primarily at play here. \"In addition, there is an influence from the stresses - smoking, harmful medications, radiation, malnutrition - that the woman's mother was exposed to during pregnancy,\" says Wibke Cornelius. The reason: The egg cell supply is already established in the female embryo. If one starts life with a comparatively small number of egg cells, this supply is used up earlier.",
  "summary": "One has early menopause, the other late. Do genes alone determine when it's time? What can a mother's menopause reveal about her own? A gynecologist answers.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}