Perimenopause, the transition to menopause, lasts for up to 10 years before that.
Menopause can come earlier much, much earlier for women with medical conditions that are treated with ovarian suppression.
One of those women is 31-year-oldAmanda Quick.
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Here, she tells Allure her story.
I was diagnosed withmetastatic breast cancer, estrogen-positive and HER2-negative, when I was 29.
My cancer is really driven by estrogen, and the ovaries produce a lot of it.
Turning them off is key to my treatment.
I vividly remember having my first hot flash that October.
I was at La Pecora Bianca with my mom in midtown Manhattan.
I remember this intense heat just washing over my chest, my arms, my whole body.
Was this related to the cancer?
But then my mom started laughing a little.
She knew exactly what it was: You’re having a hot flash.
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I still get the occasional hot flash, but the bigger side effect for me is the night sweats.
I get them probably twice a week.
I wake up and the sheets, my pajamas, everything will just be soaked.
Ive found that the best sheets to keep me cool are cotton and very breathable.
And I always sleep incotton pajamas, never silk or nylon or polyester.
And I always see to it I drink a lot of water.
And thats really helped me.
Ill be on treatment for the rest of my life.
Its too risky to come off it to become pregnant and give the cancer an environment to grow in.
If I decide to have children, Ill have to adopt or do surrogacy or something else.
And we need to start treatment now.
Even a couple of months was too long to wait.
Im not ready yet, though.
Once I remove my ovaries, it’s that moment of, Okay, I’ve really done this.
I can’t have kids.
Theres an emotional battery that everyone has and when you go through cancer it can get depleted.
This sucks or Im going through this and I dont know what to do.
For them, it’s very much like, Oh yeah, my mom’s going through menopause.
She’s moody, she’s whatever.
Its still a far-off concept.
Like, that shot in the ass for Lupron?
Can we at least get a male nurse to do it and make this a little more fun?
With improvements in research and treatment, many cancers have becomechronic and almost invisible illnesses.
You see me walking down the street, and you probably would have no idea Im sick.
I have all my hair.
I’m at a healthy weight.
I just look like a normal person in the crowd.
I do get nervous thinking about saying, I’m in early onset menopause.
But Ill cross that bridge when I get to it.
It will definitely be interesting to see how that person reacts.
Its not exactly something you put in your Tinder profile.
Hey, Im in medically induced menopause.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Menopause symptoms are definitely annoying.
Its still a more taboo subject than it should be but I see that changing.
Some of us just a little sooner than others.
