When the actor Naomi Watts started experiencing menopause symptoms, she says she “felt like I was losing my mind, and I was definitely losing what it felt like to be ‘myself’”. Then consider the fact that this was all happening when Watts was 36 – at least a decade earlier than expected, “a time when [she] was more focused on starting a family” and well before any of her peers had gone through the same experience. No wonder the star describes it as “incredibly isolating”.
Typically, as a woman enters her forties, her ovaries will produce less of the hormones oestrogen and progesterone; during the years that follow, known as perimenopause, her periods will start to become unpredictable, eventually stopping altogether. Twelve months after her final period, she is said to have reached menopause. According to the NHS, the average age for this is 51 years old. But for one per cent of women, it occurs before the age of 40, and is defined as “premature” menopause. For 0.1 per cent, it happens pre-30. As many as 5 per cent of women will also experience “early” menopause, between the ages of 40 and 45.
