Kinnari Gupta, a 29-year-old program manager with an IT major, was enjoying a successful run professionally and is set to tie the knot in November. But some seven months ago, she started experiencing anxiety and mood swings. She also began losing her night sleep at least 2-3 times a week. Her menstrual cycle, too, became irregular.

Doctors are finding a drastic shift in the biological clocks of urban women with the mean age for contracting menopause to be around 35 years.

A five-year-long study conducted by Sattvam, a Bangalore-based speciality care centre for women and children, found that 432 of the 980 women covered entered menopause in the age group of 30-35 years, while 216 were between 35-40 years age. The centre has also treated 68 women, who entered menopause in the age group of 25-30 years, while 264 women were above 40 years of age.

“What is worrying is that 42% of these women are working women. Ramifications of early menopause in some cases have been so extreme that it has adversely affected their profession and in some cases their personal life too. Most of them complained of frequent mood swings, unknown depression, anxiety and sleeplessness. All these are capable of causing many other lifestyle diseases,” said Dr Deepak Shah, a homoeopath and director of Sattvam.

Dr Gayatri Karthik, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Manipal Hospitals, said: “Entering menopause in the late 20s or early 30s is not very common, but we still get 2-3 such cases in ayear. I treated a 27-year-old patient for menopause about a year ago. Urban lifestyle, increasing use of artificial reproductive techniques and stress among others can be the reasons behind this. But with science making so much of progress and techniques available for assisted reproduction women need not worry.”