Typical Menopause Age

The typical or average age for menopause is 51; however, your ethnicity can have a bearing on when you will completely stop menstruating. In addition, if your mother or other female predecessors had an early or, conversely, late menopause you are more than likely to follow in their footsteps.

Ethnicities

• According to Ajph.org., the average age that an African American woman goes into menopause is 48 whereas Malaysian women cease menstruating at the average age of 47.96 years, so reports Semj.sums.ar.ir. The mean age for menopause in Latina women is 49.4 years, according to Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Caucasian women enter menopause at the average age of 51. However, it can vary by 5 years either way and that is not unusual.

The Phases

• Nia.nih.gov Health Information Publications explains that the period of time when a woman is transitioning into menopause is called peri-menopause. This phase can last for years. It leads up to your last menstrual period. A woman is considered to be in menopause when she has gone one full year without a menstrual period. The date of a woman's last menstrual period marks the arrival of menopause, according to Medhelp.org.

Menopause and Post-Menopause are Simultaneous

• Post-menopause comes after menopause. Post-menopause actually starts with your final period and lasts the rest of your life; however, you won't know that you are post-menopausal until you have gone a full year without another period. So, ironically, you will simultaneously realize that you are both menopausal and post-menopausal once that full year comes and goes since your last menstrual period. At this point, the symptoms of menopause will gradually go away but you may be at higher risk for other medical problems such as heart disease, hypothyroidism and osteoporosis.

Premature Menopause

• Any woman who enters into menopause before the age of 45 is considered to have premature menopause. Premature menopause can be caused by surgery (hysterectomy and removal of the ovaries, which is called oophorectomy), or it can be caused by undergoing chemotherapy. If you have a hysterectomy and your ovaries aren't removed, you will not immediately go into menopause; however, you may enter into menopause five years earlier than you would have if you hadn't had surgery. If your ovaries are removed, you will be immediately menopausal and may become instantaneously symptomatic. When both ovaries are removed you have lost your main supply of estrogen.

Heart Disease and Menopause

• One of the concerns of menopausal women is that they are at a higher risk for heart problems because they are no longer protected by estrogen and progesterone. However, the Framingham Heart Study indicated that menopausal age is determined by heart disease risk rather than the other way around. The objective was to determine whether a harmful cardiovascular risk profile accelerates menopause. According to the study, "Higher pre-menopausal levels of serum total cholesterol, relative weight and blood pressure were statistically and significantly associated with an earlier age of menopause." Lower serum cholesterol among pre-menopausal women was associated with a later menopause onset. Lower blood pressure was also associated with late menopause but these findings were not as significant.