Dr. Betty Murray reports that 1 in 14 women experience early menopause, with higher rates in rural areas. College education cuts the risk by 58%. Delayed childbearing and formal employment also protect against it, contradicting older research linking disadvantage to earlier menopause.
About 7% of women, roughly 1 in 14 in the pooled sample, experienced early menopause, meaning they started the process, their symptoms showed up early. The prevalence was consistently higher as you moved into rural areas relative to urban areas. Now, here's where it gets a little more interesting. Women that were college educated were 58% less likely to experience early menopause. Delayed childbearing and formal employment were also protective. So Having children later in life seemed to reduce the amount of perimenopausal symptoms in the early onset, and also having formal ongoing employment, which is interesting 'cause that kind of conflicts with previous older studies when we pooled across all socioeconomic data.
