But you can take action to minimize it!

You had your life figured out. Sure, you were leaving pregnancy a little late. But you had to finish your degree. Then your second degree. Then your internship. A few years of work after graduation made sense, too – you wanted to get valuable experience before taking your first maternity leave.

What you didn’t count on was premature menopause. You’re still young – menopause isn’t supposed to happen to a 38-year old, is it? And to add insult to the injury of infertility, your premature menopause puts you at greater risk for osteoporosis.

Henry Burger is a consultant clinical endocrinologist, an author, and a past president of the International Menopause Society. He enlightened menopauseinsight.com on the risks of osteoporosis for women who confront menopause before age 40.

“The key feature [of osteoporosis] is the increased risk of low trauma fracture,” he says. In fact, a fracture suffered under minimal trauma can be the incident that points at a diagnosis of osteoporosis.

Many factors can contribute to the development of osteoporosis: family history, smoking, low calcium intake and vitamin D deficiency are just a few. So is premature menopause.

“Premature menopause predisposes [women] to loss of bone mineral density,” says the clinician, “which may be sufficient to reach the diagnostic threshold.”

Can we predict which women will experience menopause prematurely? In “some instances” there may be predictive signs that make it likely, says Burger. Older women having chemotherapy for breast cancer, carriers of FMR1 permutation, and women with signs of Turner’s syndrome are more likely to undergo premature menopause.

You can still take action, though, to lessen your risk of osteoporosis, even if you encounter menopause prematurely.  Keeping your calcium and vitamin D intakes adequate, as well as treatment with hormone replacement therapy can make a difference, Burger says. Seeing as more general risk factors for osteoporosis include smoking and inactivity, giving up cigarettes and starting a sensible exercise program could also make a difference.

You’re experiencing a sometimes physically and emotionally painful adjustment. But you’re not necessarily doomed to experience early age osteoporosis. Consult with your physician about the steps you can take to keep your bones healthy and your body active. You're going to need lots of energy to keep up to the daughter you hope to adopt.

- Eric Sparling