This webpage uses gender-specific language (e.g., woman, women, she). However, Astellas recognises that some individuals who experience menopause may identify differently than the gender and pronouns used in this webpage. Astellas intends to be inclusive of all gender identities.
What is menopause?
Menopause is a natural stage of life that all women, and people assigned female at birth, experience.
Menopause has three different stages:
- Perimenopause: this is the time leading up to menopause where the ovaries gradually stop working. During perimenopause, sex hormones may have more significant fluctuations. Women may experience changes such as shorter or irregular periods or other menopausal symptoms before menopause.1 Fertility drops as menopause approaches, due to irregular periods and ovulation cycles.2,3 Perimenopause usually occurs between the ages of 45 to 55, but it can happen much earlier or later.4 Listening to your body, and taking note of any changes, is key to getting a timely diagnosis and support you may need to help you manage this important health transition.
- Menopause: this is a point in time when a woman has not had a period for 12 consecutive months.5 Ovaries stop releasing eggs for fertilisation, meaning you can no longer get pregnant (with the exception of rare cases).6 Most women across all ethnicities experience menopause between ages 40 and 58, but the average age is 51.7
- Early menopause is the term for menopause that happens between 40 and 45. It occurs naturally in up to 5% of women, but the most common cause is due to surgery.8
- Premature menopause is when menopause occurs before the age of 40. It is rare and occurs naturally in about 1% of women. Many of the causes of premature menopause are the same as the causes of early menopause.9
- Postmenopause: this is the time after menopause has happened, starting when a woman has not had a period for 12 consecutive months, if over the age of 50 years, or 24 consecutive months if under the age of 50.10
Menopause (including premature/early menopause) can also happen when both ovaries are removed through surgery, or as a result of treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or hormone suppressive therapies before you have gone through natural menopause. This is called a surgical menopause or treatment-induced menopause.7,11,12 Symptoms of surgical menopause are similar to those of natural menopause, but may come on more suddenly and be more severe because of the immediate drop in your oestrogen levels that accompany sudden loss of ovarian function.13,14 These treatments can also reduce the levels of testosterone.15
Globally, around 47 million women experience menopause every year and there are almost one billion postmenopausal women worldwide.16,17 A common misunderstanding is that because menopause is a natural part of ageing, nothing can be done about symptoms.18
The Menopause Experience & Attitudes Study
To understand and quantify the impact of menopause stigma, Astellas commissioned the Menopause Experience & Attitudes Study which is a research initiative, developed in partnership with external experts, to examine and track societal attitudes, personal experiences, and the stigma surrounding perimenopause and menopause across multiple countries. Key findings from the Study shows menopause significantly affects women’s mental health and job satisfaction, influencing their workplace engagement and productivity, with:19
- Two thirds (65%) having experienced negative psychological feelings due to menopause, including anxiety (41%), depression (33%), embarrassment (24%) and shame (11%).
- 36% experienced some kind of negative impact in the workplace, from reduced productivity (17%), to fear of telling colleagues (14%), to outright discrimination (7%) and only a quarter (24%) feel comfortable talking to their line manager.
- Over half (57%) of respondents believe women are not well supported at work.
For more information on the findings of the Menopause Experience & Attitudes Study, see here:
Link to Infographic 1 and Infographic 2
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References
1 Johns Hopkins Medicine. Perimenopause. Available at: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/perimenopause#:~:text=Perimenopause%20is%20the%20time%20around,%2C%20antidepressants%2C%20and%20lifestyle%20changes. Last accessed: May 2025.
2 Delamater L, Santoro N. Management of the Perimenopause. Clin Obstet Gynecol. 2018 Sep;61(3):419-432. doi: 10.1097/GRF.0000000000000389.
3 Perimenopause. Johns Hopkins Medicine. Available at:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/perimenopause#:~:text=What%20is%20perimenopause?,and%20more%20irregular%20menstrual%20cycles. Last accessed: May 2025.
4 NHS inform. Menopause. Available at: https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/womens-health/later-years-around-50-years-and-over/menopause-and-post-menopause-health/menopause/#:~:text=Perimenopause%20and%20menopause%20are%20a,seeking%20support%20from%20healthcare%20professionals. Last accessed: May 2025.
5 Mayo Clinic. Menopause. Symptoms and causes. Available at: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/menopause/symptoms-causes/syc-20353397. Last accessed: November 2024.
6 World Health Organization. Menopause. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/menopause#:~:text=After%20menopause%2C%20a%20woman%20cannot,of%20surgical%20or%20medical%20procedures. Last accessed: May 2025.
7 Rees, M. et al. Global consensus recommendations on menopause in the workplace: A European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) position statement. Available at: https://www.emas-online.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Global-consensus-recommendations-on-menopause-in-the-workplace.pdf. Last accessed: May 2025.
8 Thurston RC. Menopause. In: Crandall CJ, Bachman GA, Faubion SS, et al., eds. Menopause Practice: A Clinician’s Guide. 6th ed. Pepper Pike, OH: North American Menopause Society, 2019;1-21.
9 Cleveland Clinic. Premature and Early Menopause. Available at: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21138-premature-and-early-menopause. Last accessed: May 2025.
10 NHS Pathfields Medical Group. Menopause Information Pack. Available at: https://pathfields.nhs.uk/patient-care-support/self-help/menopause-information-pack. Last accessed: May 2025.
11 Canadian Cancer Society. Treatment-induced menopause. Available at: https://cancer.ca/en/treatments/side-effects/treatment-induced-menopause#:~:text=Surgery%20to%20remove%20both%20ovaries%20causes%20acute%2C%20permanent%20treatment%2Dinduced,cause%20temporary%20treatment%2Dinduced%20menopause. Last accessed: May 2025.
12 NHS Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. Surgical Menopause. Available at: https://www.royalfree.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/patient-information-leaflets/surgical-menopause#:~:text=nurse%20or%20doctor.-,What%20is%20surgical%20menopause?,the%20menopause%20after%20the%20surgery. Last accessed: November 2024.
13 Surgical menopause: a toolkit for healthcare professionals. British Menopause Society. Available at: https://thebms.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/13-BMS-TfC-Surgical-Menopause-SEPT2024-D.pdf. Last accessed: May 2025.
14 IAPMD. How is surgical menopause different from the natural menopause? Available at: https://faq.iapmd.org/en/articles/3642566-how-is-surgical-menopause-different-from-the-natural-menopause. Last accessed: May 2025.
15 Donovitz, G. A Personal Prospective on Testosterone Therapy in Women—What We Know in 2022. J Pers Med. 2022 Jul 22;12(8):1194.
16 Hill K. The demography of menopause. Maturitas. 1996 Mar;23(2):113-27. doi: 10.1016/0378-5122(95)00968-x. PMID: 8735350.
17 Hickey, M et al. (2024) An empowerment model for managing menopause. The Lancet, Volume 403, Issue 10430, 947 - 957.
18 Schaedel, Z., & Rymer, J. (2022). Menopause care and over the counter vaginal oestradiol. The Lancet, 399, 2250-2252. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00952-7
19 Astellas Data on File. Menopause Experience and Attitudes Study. 2025.
MAT-GB-NON-2025-00206 April 2025