It is no news to women at any age as to why they will be experiencing menopause, but at an age below 40, it can be a huge shock for those who do not expect it in spite of the fact that early menopause is not a rare incident amongst the female population. Early menopause happens to hundreds of thousands if not millions of women every year and a lot of them experience early menopause as early as in their teens!

By the mouth of recent research conducted, 9 out of every 100 women will experience natural menopause before they reach age 40. Even more women will go through the experience of menopause due to unnatural causes for various reasons.

With that in mind, the one can not help to ask "what is the cause of early menopause"? In the event where a woman has had a hysterectomy or had her ovaries surgically removed it is quite understandable. Even if a woman had to receive cancer treatment or the medical history of close relatives indicates that early menopause are present in the family, one can expect it to happen. But even then it is an emotional shock.

But what do you do if none of the above are applicable? Where do you start to look for answers? One of the most common causes of premature menopause is due to an autoimmune disorder. An autoimmune disorder can be discribed in laymen's toungue as the occurance when your immune system starts to act on certain body parts that are wrongly identified by your body as a threat and command antibodies to attack the so-called threat.

Where early menopause occurs it is likely that there will be antibodies present in the endometrium, hormones or the ovaries. As a result, the antibodies' attack is so severe that it causes the reproductive system to malfunction or even eradicate the function of the ovaries. Women suffering from alternative autoimmune disorders such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or some kind of thyroid diseases, have a higher risk of experiencing early menopause.

Female babies that contract viral infections while still in the mother's womb can also have an affect on a female baby's ovarian development. In such cases, the female baby is born with an insufficient number of eggs to be released during her lifetime. It is just evident that these females then will experience menopause earlier than other females simply because they have less eggs than normal will calculatingly means you will experience earlier menopause.

Radiation and or chemotherapy are common unnatural causes for early menopause. It is widely known that the high doses of radiation or chemotherapy used to treat cancer undesirably and regrettably causes destruction of the ovaries that result in early menopause. In the event where a woman has received chemo or radiation for only a short period or at a low dosage, transitory menopause may occur.

However, the functioning of the ovaries may cease for a period of about 4 months and then return being normal again. Disappointingly, even if it seems as if your reproductive organs start functioning again it is highly probable that the infertility will persist.