"I'm late...I'm late...for a very important date.

Sometimes I feel like Alice did when she went down that rabbit hole...

We discussed life style choices in my previous blog and how those choices may lead to an earlier or later onset menopause. It’s pretty obvious why a woman wouldn’t want to enter menopause before her time, hoping to keep it at bay for as long as possible, but later onset menopause is nothing to strive for. When I started on this journey last year, all I could think about what how to stop the train, get off, and relax a while where I was.

No such luck.

In the research article I mentioned in the last blog from the Institute of Cancer Research in the UK, the researchers make a good case for the problems associated with going through menopause at a later time, especially in the increased risks to breast and ovarian cancer. These are called menopausal risk factors and they are serious health concerns.

Prolonged estrogen exposure, coupled with menstruation starting at an early age, say before 12, can add to a woman’s risk of ovarian cancer. If a woman has a genetic predisposition to ovarian cancer through female lines, the risk is even higher.

Breast density, an independent breast cancer risk factor, is related to higher and prolonged estrogen levels as well.  Women with dense breasts, who have a long menstrual history ( preteen years at onset) and who delayed their menopause due to hormone replacement, also increase their risk of breast cancer according to Celia Byrne, PhD of Georgetown University. Her team examined mammograms from the Women’s Health Initiative. Women with dense breasts were at the most risk for breast cancer. The density of your breasts seems to drop during menopause, probably due to the decrease in estrogen. So, the con to that statement is hypothesized as: women with highly dense breasts and late menopause onset elevate their cancer risk. Now add obesity to the aspects of late onset and dense breasts and the risk may heighten even more.

Another health concern in late onset menopause is, believe it or not, pregnancy. In the article that mentions Dr. Bryne’s research, the National Center for Health statistics is quoted as “In 2007, 6 out of every 10,000 live births in the US were to women 50-54.” This statistic poses it’s own health concerns. 50 % of women who conceive over age 42 miscarry; diabetes, pre-eclampsia, and high blood pressure are all increased with a late pregnancy, as is choricarcinoma, a pregnancy related cancer of the uterus. Down’s syndrome in the live births of women who get pregnant late in life is heavily documented, as are other congenital disorders in the babies born.

The average age of women who go through menopause in the UK and the USA is 50-56. I started at 53, so I’m right in the middle. Now for my risk factors: I started my period at 9. I know. What third grader has breasts and uses sanitary pads? Ridiculous. But I was very fat and tall for my age, so right there, it should have been expected. I have a strong breast cancer occurrence on both maternal and paternal sides, but no genetic link in the form of that brca gene, either 1 or 2. I had one baby at age 27, so again, right in the middle of the statistic’s roadway. My weight has yoyo-ed for most of my adult life, so that heightens my risks for problems. I had a hysterectomy at age 46 due to severe uterine fibroids – another risk factor – but kept my ovaries, which are rapidly declining and shrinking with age, even as I write this.

I’m not doomed, by any sense, but I am trying to reverse some of the bad karma by eating better, getting a great deal more exercise, and by doing regular monthly self breasts exams and yearly mammograms.

And, of course, I pray all the time.