depends what you mean by menopause. The word actually means the ending of periods and so starts when you have your last bleed. perimenopause, when all the fun kicks off can start a lot earlier and still be normal, mine started when I was aged about 45...looking back, it might even have been a year or so earlier than that, 45 was when the problems got annoying enough to notice. I do think that now it has been discussed more and we are more savvy, that people notice it earlier and want to do something about it earlier.