How to Delay Menopause: Is It Possible? Is It Safe?

Some women look forward to the freedom of life after menopause – no more periods (and no more pads and tampons to buy), no danger of an unexpected pregnancy. But for others, the thought of starting a new chapter is something that they’d rather postpone.

It might be that you’re not ready to leave your reproductive years behind, you’re having early perimenopause symptoms that you could frankly do without, or early menopause runs in your family.

Whatever the reason why you’re trying to find out how to delay menopause – you’ve come to the right place.

In this article: 📝

Can you prevent menopause?

Let’s start with the bad news. Ultimately, no.

It’s not possible to prevent menopause completely.

So if you want to know how to avoid menopause (and the associated symptoms) completely, we’re sorry, but there’s just no way to do it.

Can you delay menopause?

Although it’s pretty clear that you can’t stop menopause from happening, the question of whether you can delay it is more open.

You might want to delay menopause because you can’t face the idea of dealing with hot flashes and mood swings when you’re at the height of your career.

Or maybe because you’re part of the growing group of women waiting until later to have their first children, and you’d like to know that you still have a few reproductive years in front of you.

So here’s what we do know about delaying menopause:

The biggest factor in deciding when you begin menopause is your genes.

You’ll probably reach menopause at about the same age your mother or grandmother did.

So while we know that the average age of menopause is 51 (and has been for a while), if the women in your family tended to have symptoms at 45, or if they were still having regular periods in their late 50s, there’s a high chance that the same thing will happen for you.

There’s not a lot you can do about changing what’s written in your genes, but you’re not completely powerless.

Actually, instead of looking at the things which might slow down your biological clock, the best thing to do is to keep an eye on the things that might be speeding it up.

Smoking

If there’s one thing that can make menopause start sooner, it’s regular smoking.

If you’re a smoker, you have a higher chance of going through menopause early – by as much as two years.

So if you want to delay menopause, the best thing you can do is concentrate on quitting.

Diet

It’s not as clear-cut as the link between smoking and earlier menopause, but there are some signs that your diet can affect the age you start getting menopause symptoms.

This isn’t totally surprising, since so much of the advice around TTC and fertility revolves around a healthy lifestyle and making sure that your body has all the vitamins it needs.

One study found that eating fewer daily portions of carbohydrates, and more fish and legumes (like beans and peas) seemed to postpone menopause by as much as two years. In terms of vitamins and minerals, the most important appeared to be vitamin B6 and zinc.

Can you delay menopause with hormones?

In the simplest terms, menopause happens when your ovaries stop producing the estrogen that they’ve previously made to regulate your menstrual cycle.

Estrogen is really important for ‘ripening’ and releasing your eggs each month.

No estrogen = no ovulation. No ovulation = menopause.

It’s easy to see where the question does taking estrogen delay menopause? comes from.

And it is true that estrogen plays a major role in hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which aims to make menopause symptoms more manageable by replacing the hormones that your body is no longer making for itself.

But there’s less evidence that taking estrogen will actually delay menopause.

What’s more, we don’t have proof that hormonal birth control, also based on estrogen (and progesterone), will delay menopause.

Again, we see the logic – the pill stops your body from releasing an egg each month, so you’ll have more eggs in your ovaries for later. But it’s just not borne out in the studies.

The bottom line: there’s not such a strong link between taking hormones and postponing menopause as there is between your lifestyle and the age it all starts.

Hormones and TTC before menopause

While it seems that even the hormones in fertility drugs wouldn’t be enough to let you avoid menopause, there are some treatments that allow women to carry children after menopause.

The most common is IVF using a donor egg, or an egg or embryo that was frozen before menopause.

Fertility doctors have also been researching whether some advanced techniques for preserving a woman’s fertility while she goes through cancer treatment might one day be able to postpone menopause by as much as 20 years.

These procedures are expensive and not widely available, but, in the future, they might become more common.

Especially to help women going through early menopause or going through menopause as the side effect of a medical procedure.

How can I delay menopause naturally?

While there don’t seem to be any sure-fire answers to the question of how to delay menopause naturally, there are definitely natural ways to make the early symptoms of menopause more manageable.

These would be the main places to start:

• Eat healthily, with a balanced menopausal diet.
  
• Exercise regularly, because this helps your body to stay balanced and destressed, and can also help to regulate your hormone levels.
  
• Get some quality sleep, and set up your bedroom to make sleep as easy as possible.
  
• Explore your options for supplements and essential oils, if you’re not ready for medication or if HRT isn’t an option for you.

And remember, you don’t have to go on this journey alone.

Whether you’re dealing with the confusion of early menopause, TTC later in life, or you just want to symptom spot with women who’re going through the same thing, the Peanut Menopause community is here for you.

📚 More on menopause:
Introducing, Peanut Menopause
How to Deal With Menopause
What Happens During Menopause?
Essential Oils for Menopause: What Helps?
Do Menopause Supplements Help?
Tea for Menopause: Which to Choose and Why
What are the Signs Perimenopause is Ending?
Evening Primrose Oil & Menopause: What’s the Story?
What Are The Benefits of Progesterone After Menopause?
Do Natural Remedies for Menopause Help?
Estrogen-Rich Foods to Eat During Menopause
Testosterone Pellets for Women: What to Know