A woman is a third more likely develop dementia if she goes through an early menopause, according to a new study.

If a woman goes through the menopause before she is 40 then this is deemed to be “premature”, while “early” is 40 to 44 years old.

The average age for the menopause is 50 or 51 years old and around one in 100 females endure a premature onset.

A team of Chinese scientists analysed data from more than 150,000 post-menopausal British women enrolled in the UK Biobank study and followed their health history for more than a decade.

In the entire study, 1,688 women developed dementia, around one per cent of the cohort.

They found that a woman who went through menopause while still in her thirties “had around 35 per cent higher risk of having all-cause dementia”.

An early menopause (40 to 45 years old) was linked to a 30 per cent increased risk of developing presenile dementia — where the disease strikes before a person is 65.

Study author Wenting Hao, a PhD candidate at Shandong University in Jinan, China, said: “Our study found that women who enter menopause very early were at greater risk of developing dementia later in life.

“Being aware of this increased risk can help women practice strategies to prevent dementia and to work with their physicians to closely monitor their cognitive status as they age.”

Reducing the risk

Dementia is a complex disease that sees a person’s cognitive ability decline, and several genetic and environmental factors influence an individual’s risk of developing it.

It is the biggest killer in the UK, accounting for around one in eight deaths.

“Dementia can be prevented, and there are a number of ways women who experience early menopause may be able to reduce their risk of dementia,” Hao said.

“This includes routine exercise, participation in leisure and educational activities, not smoking and not drinking alcohol, maintaining a healthy weight, getting enough vitamin D and, if recommended by their physician, possibly taking calcium supplements.”