Your overall health and wellbeing is greatly affected by your genetics, and looking at the medical history of your family can be a good way to predict certain things. Conditions like heart problems or certain cancers can have a genetic component, and you can even be particularly prone to certain mental health disorders if they tend to run in your family.
You may wonder if this means that your genetics will have an impact on your experience of menopause. Will you begin menopause at the same age as your mother, grandmothers, and other female relatives? If they have a difficult time and struggle with their symptoms, does that mean that the same will be true for you? The answer isn’t entirely cut and dry, so let’s take a closer look at the link between genetics and menopause!
Early Menopause
Early menopause is something that can potentially affect any woman, but that can be very tricky to predict. The only time you can ever really know when you’re going to hit menopause is when you’ve actually hit it. However, there are some indicators that can help you to predict when the onset of menopause will begin for you, and your genetics are one of them.
If close female relatives of yours have begun menopause early or prematurely (before 45 or 40), especially if multiple women in your family have experienced the same thing, there’s a chance that this will be the case for you as well. However, it’s not a guarantee. There is a correlation between genetics and the age of menopause onset, but not a clearly identifiable link, and scientists are still working on understanding how much of the way your body works is because of your genes, how much is due to external factors, and how much is simply random.
Menopause Symptoms
In a similar vein, genetics can be a factor in how you experience menopause itself, but not the end-all-be-all that decides what your menopausal years will be like. If your mother, sisters, aunts, and cousins all experienced brutal hot flashes or gained a great deal of weight, for example, there’s a good chance you will as well, but it’s just that– a chance, not a sure thing.
Think of the link between genetics and menopause like the link between genetics and pregnancy. Things like having big babies or carrying past your due date might be common in certain families, but that doesn’t mean it’s definitely going to happen for every woman of one genetic line in every pregnancy she has. Just because your mother had terrible morning sickness when she was pregnant with you doesn’t mean that you’ll go through the same thing. Genetics do play a factor in the experience of things like pregnancy and menopause, but there are many other factors at play– even ones you can control!
Other Contributing Factors
So, genetics are a factor in menopause, but not the only factor you have to consider. So what else determines when you will enter menopause, and what it will be like for you? The answer: a lot of things, and many of them are within your control!
Your lifestyle choices can play an important role in how menopause plays out for you. Women who are heavy smokers and drinkers, for example, tend to enter menopause earlier than women who aren’t, and these substances can exacerbate the symptoms of menopause like hot flashes, sleep problems, and low energy levels. Quitting or at least limiting your intake can help to make menopause easier to manage. Diets lacking in certain nutrients can also contribute to early menopause, so ensuring that you’re eating well-rounded meals on a regular basis can be helpful. Other contributing factors are more difficult to control, but identifying them can help you to prepare yourself for menopause better, like certain chromosomal conditions or autoimmune diseases. Your doctor can tell you if you might be at risk for these issues.
Understanding human genetics is something that scientists around the world are working tirelessly on every day, but we do know this– looking to your family members for guidance when it comes to your health can be a very good thing, even when the familial ties of things like menopause aren’t fully understood. If you want to learn more about menopause and women’s hormones, Renewed Vitality can help you! Keep reading our blog here for more information.
