Home Fibroid Mornings Can fibroids cause early menopause?

Can fibroids cause early menopause?

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monica posing May 2nd 2014 dance 1

Let people think you’re silly or stupid or pathetic or vain or whatever it is they want to think. But don’t let their thoughts stop you from doing the things that give you joy. Regardless how silly or stupid or pathetic or vain or whatever others perceive you and the things you do — regardless even if there are voices in your own head telling you that you’re silly or stupid or pathetic or vain or whatever–do whatever makes you feel good as long as it’s legal and it doesn’t harm you or harm others.

I have more than once or twice thought that I wouldn’t mind if menopause happened early so that I could get rid of these fibroids. If my mother is right about what happened to me earlier this month, I could possibly be on my way to getting my wish; but from what I am reading today it seems the time between the onset of menopausal symptoms and actual menopause can be lengthy and the experiences of dealing with what it does to your life rather unpleasant.

My mother tells me that when this is finally over I will be so happy I will want to stand on my head. I look forward to being that happy. I don’t really fear the idea of menopause, even if it comes now, several years earlier than the normal age when menopause typically happens. It seems silly to me to fear the inevitable, especially when it’s really right around the corner anyway. It can be terribly dull and uninspiring to hear women in their forties expressing dread about aging. Women in their mid and even late 30s can be forgiven; but once you cross over, get over it and try to focus on living your life in a manner that inspires younger women to see that there’s more to life than skin (because that’s all fear of aging comes down to for most women–worrying about the condition of your aging skin/your looks). Life is a cycle; and in that cycle there are stages. Everyone goes through all the stages of life unless their life ends prematurely. Accept where you are. Value and make the most of the time that you have and stop worrying about what’s behind you that you can’t get back. You’re going to die anyway. So, unless you can’t wait for death, focus on the time that you have and live as fully as you have the desire and energy to live.

On the subject of menopause, I woke up this morning wondering “Can fibroids cause early menopause?“. So I took a moment to google the question. It brought me to some very interesting and helpful reads, not all necessarily addressing the question of whether or not fibroids can cause early menopause, but certainly relevant to what I am going through.

In “What Causes Early Menopause or Premature Ovarian Failure? – Hot Flashes at 30? It’s Possible“, someone identified by the name Kate Freer, wrote for the Yahoo Network:

The majority of women begin menopause after 51 years of age but about one percent of women may experience menopause much younger. I was one of those women. Menopause symptoms began when I was around 45, ending finally when I turned 53. I can say that those years were not fun dealing with uterine fibroids, irregular periods, pain, and clotting. I chose not to have surgery because I had no insurance. With time my symptoms lessened, my fibroids dried up, and finally my periods ended as well. It was a beautiful time in my life when I was finally set free from all those female problems. But what causes early menopause? (full article)

This doesn’t really address the question of whether or not fibroids can cause early menopause. But it does pretty much echo what my mother has told me about how much of a relief it’s going to be when menopause does happen. I don’t find it very surprising that every woman who has ever commented to me about what it’s like to no longer have to deal with the kind of “female problems” that can plague you after a certain age (and sometimes before) has spoken with gratitude and relief to be out of that stage of life. I think that until you go through certain things in your life you can’t really appreciate that some things about youth aren’t worth suffering to stay young. I know some women who will want menopause to happen at the very last minute because they think once it happens it’s proof they’re officially old, useless and dried up; but as long as they still have a period they can still claim to belong with the younger crowd. They hear that someone younger than they are might be experiencing menopausal symptoms and they find the idea upsetting because they need to hang on to this belief that they themselves are too young for menopause. So if someone else is already transitioning who is younger than they are, it challenges this notion of them being too young for menopause. They can’t deal with that and try to drag you down into that mindset with them that you’re too young for menopause and should be panicked at the thought that you might experience the dreaded change early.

I am not afraid of menopause as far as what it means in terms of age. The fact is I am not too young for menopause to start, and from what I can tell, I might be past the age where I can classify the situation as “early menopause” if that’s what’s happening.

Is it early menopause if you’re over 40?

In her article, Kate Freer suggests that early menopause affects women between the ages of 20 and 46; but most of the material I’ve found on sites such as webMD and womenshealth.gov suggests it only classifies as early menopause if it happens before the age of 40. I am 43 so I might not be able to use the term “early menopause” to describe what may or may not be happening to me at this time. It would appear that, even while it’s agreed that 51 is the average age of onset for “natural” menopause, it is considered perfectly normal if menopause occurs at any age after 40.

So can fibroids bring on menopause or what?

I can’t seem to find anything that would indicate that fibroids can bring on menopause. What I have found is that uterine fibroid growth is listed as a symptom of menopause. Can you imagine that? You’re battling fibroids trying to get rid of them, and then you start to go through menopause and your fibroids get worse as a result. I certainly hope it is not a situation that my fibroids will get worse before I eventually reap the benefit of them drying up as a result of menopause. But they certainly seem to be rebelling lately against my efforts to shrink them.

For sure something is going on with my body. It has been going on for a few months. Last month was pretty bad. Things are changing and most of the signs point to the onset of menopause; although, looking through this list of 34 symptoms of menopause that I found on http://www.34-menopause-symptoms.com/, a lot of those things are things I’ve dealt with for years of my life so who really knows what’s going on?

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My name is Monica. I have fibroids. My fibroids are large enough that they have transformed my figure into something I am still trying to learn how to live with. In the meantime while I try to learn how to live with my fibroids I am also trying every possible method I can find to try to shrink them naturally because I am afraid of the idea of a hysterectomy. I lived with fibroids from 2007 - 2016. I started documenting my experiences on this blog in 2012. On March 7th 2016 I had a hysterectomy out of concern that I might have ovarian cancer. It did not turn out that I had ovarian cancer. The cancer scare forced the hysterectomy I was trying to avoid, and so, I became fibroid free as of March 7th 2016. I will try to keep this blog up and running in the hope that it will be of some use to others going through what I went through.

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