Early menopause affects 1 in 100 women under 40, and around 10 percent of women experience surgical menopause.

Psychological impacts, including anxiety, low mood, and isolation, are as significant as physical symptoms.

CBT is recommended as part of menopause care and can help manage physical and psychological symptoms.

Most conversations about menopause assume it happens in midlife.

Yet, for thousands of women, menopause arrives decades earlier, often at a stage of life when friends are having children, building careers, and planning for the future. The result can be a profound sense of being out of step with both peers and expectations.

Whether caused by surgical removal of the ovaries as part of treatment for conditions such as cancer, fibroids, and endometriosis or by premature ovarian insufficiency, thousands of women in their 20s or 30s experience menopause every year.

How common is early menopause?

In the United Kingdom, about 5 percent of women experience menopause before the age of 45, while approximately 1 percent experience it before the age of 40, and 0.1 percent—around 28,000 women—before they reach 30.

While the physical symptoms may be similar to those experienced later in life, the psychological impact is often very different and far less discussed.

What are the emotional impacts of early menopause?

Younger women going through premature or surgical menopause may feel out of step with their peers and with societal expectations of where they should be in life.

Menopause is usually a transition that occurs after many major life milestones have been reached and passed. But when it happens early, it can interrupt a period when people are establishing careers, forming long-term relationships, or thinking about starting a family. For some, it arrives without warning, leaving little time to prepare psychologically for what is happening.

This can lead to a profound sense of dislocation.

Many women feel isolated........

© Psychology Today