Early Periods And Menopause – The menstrual cycle beginning below 11 years of age and ending below 45 years of age can be called early menarche and early menopause respectively
Studies have shown that experiencing adversity early on in life can affect one’s biological timeline. Some researchers have demonstrated how certain trauma can pace up the ageing process. Early puberty among girls has been associated with various physical and psychological disturbances. While the causes of early puberty are still under investigation, a new body of research is showing some association with a dramatic and adverse childhood including events like poverty and violence. There are many things that abuse can alter in a woman’s overall well-being. One among them is the timing of menstruation, when it starts and when it ends.
While menarche is the onset of the menstrual cycle and on average begins around the ages 11-13, menopause is the end of the reproductive cycle that hits a woman in her 40s or 50s. The menstrual cycle beginning below 11 years of age and ending below 45 years of age can be called early menarche and early menopause respectively. While the timeline remains untouched for some women, in some it has to be found altered. Violent and traumatic experiences in the past have been found to accelerate pubertal development in girls, it has been found to accelerate the ageing of cells and might lead to early menopause.
Early Period Onset And Abuse
Many studies are finding an association between early puberty and poverty. Adverse physical or environmental situations can put the body in a chronically alert mode and this could regulate the early release of reproductive hormones. Similarly, for young girls who face emotionally difficult situations like violence, absent fathers, emotionally unavailable parents or abuse of any nature, their bodies might be programmed to start the reproductive processes earlier so that the genes could be passed on to the next generation. Studies have shown that stress can cause the early release of reproductive hormones. As per some experts, if a child is growing up in an environment that is full of physical and emotional threats, then the areas of the brain processing the social and emotional conditions become all the more efficient. Some studies have shown the contrary, abuse has been also linked to girls getting their first periods later than average. Early menarche has also been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, metabolic disorders and cardiovascular conditions.
Early menopause and violence
The study Association between intergenerational violence exposure and maternal age of menopause has shown a fine connection between a woman’s violent past and early menopause. The effects have been found similar for both the mother suffering abuse and her child suffering from the safe. As per studies, such women who have been physically abused as a child or whose child has suffered from abuse are likely to reach menopause 8.78 years earlier than mothers without such a history. Studies also show some disruption of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the body’s response to stress in these women.
