How long can the menopause last? [with sign language]

Dr Louise Newson clarifies how long the menopause can last in some women.

Video Transcript:

I am Dr. Louise Newson. I am a GP and Menopause Expert in West Midlands.

As women we are designed to have babies. That is our one main role in life.

So if you think in the 1900s – the early 1900s – the average age of the Menopause was 57 and they would on average die at 59. So we had only a couple of years of Menopause to experience. Now the average age is 51…so a few years earlier. But the average life-expectancy of the woman is in her eighties, which is amazing. It is great. So it a 30 years of potentially having menopausal symptoms or being post-menopausal.

Some women only experience symptoms for a couple of years and they are the lucky ones. But I have patients who still have hot flushes in their seventies and their eighties. So not only do they have symptoms for a long time but the lack of estrogen can affect their bones and can affect our hearts adversely as well.