Although IVF is becoming increasingly popular and essential for many facing fertility challenges, many myths about the procedure still persist. The latest is a false claim circulating online that IVF treatments can trigger early menopause.
This latest dose of health misinformation comes from actress and singer Adrienne Bailon-Houghton, 41. The former Cheetah Girls star claimed during an appearance on the “Angie Martinez IRL” podcast last week that after multiple cycles of IVF treatments, “stopping the process triggered early menopause“; she described experiencing notable physical changes akin to menopause symptoms, such as frequent hot flashes.
But according to doctors, IVF does not impact the timing of menopause, let alone cause it to come prematurely.
IVF Treatment Doesn’t Trigger Early Menopause
Reproductive health experts say this claim simply isn’t true.
“IVF and other fertility medications and treatments do not trigger premature menopause,” Dr. Lauren Roth, a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist and medical director of Shady Grove Fertility, tells Flow Space. There are no validated scientific studies that suggest IVF treatments cause early menopause.
However, fertility and menopause are indeed linked: A woman is born with all the eggs she’ll ever have and that supply naturally dwindles as she ages, shedding them when she ovulates during her period. Menopause is defined as 12 months without a period, during which time the ovaries have finished releasing all of their eggs.
IVF and other fertility medications don’t shrink the overall egg supply, but rather only stimulate the available ones. Each month when a woman can get pregnant, there’s a group of eggs that can respond to hormones, says Roth; the brain only sends enough hormones to the ovary for one egg to develop and ovulate and the remaining eggs go unused. IVF works by using medications like follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) to stimulate a woman’s eggs that are already available and would otherwise die without additional hormones.
“The medications for IVF and other fertility treatments can only stimulate the eggs that are in that month’s group to develop, so fertility medications are ‘saving’ eggs that would otherwise die,” she explains. “We cannot access or stimulate future eggs, so IVF and fertility medications are not decreasing the overall egg pool.”
One reason this myth perpetuates is probably because people who generally pursue IVF seek treatment because they’re already experiencing declining fertility, says Dr. Robin Noble, chief medical officer at Let’s Talk Menopause. According to a CDC report published in 2024 about assisted reproductive technologies (ART), the average age of IVF users is 36.3 years old; while there is no set age when perimenopause begins, symptoms typically start to develop in the early- to mid-40s.
It’s also possible that undergoing these treatments can reveal already declining fertility. Age plays a significant role in fertility due to the decreasing number and quality of eggs available, says Roth. Part of IVF treatment involves testing to determine how many eggs are available. This can reveal that someone has a low ovarian reserve, or an overall low amount of eggs. This along with low response to fertility medications—which indicates declining fertility—may mean a higher risk for early menopause, but IVF doesn’t cause it.
“It is not the IVF medications causing a low egg number, but rather that the IVF process aids in identifying those at risk for earlier menopause,” says Roth.
If menopause happens shortly after IVF, it’s possible that the person was actually already perimenopausal or “at the tail end of their fertility anyway” when they were being treated, adds Dr. Stephanie S. Faubion, medical director of The North American Menopause Society and director for Mayo Clinic’s Center for Women’s Health.
The medications used in IVF and other fertility treatments don’t trigger early menopause, but Roth and Noble say some can cause similar, temporary side effects like hot flashes, vaginal dryness, disturbed sleep and mood swings. But this doesn’t actually mean the medications trigger early menopause.
IVF treatments have side effects which may be mistaken for menopause symptoms. “Your estrogen level can go high when that hyper stimulation occurs, and then it has to fall—and when you fall, you’re going to have symptoms,” says Faubion.
Causes of Early Menopause
Fertility treatments don’t cause early menopause, but there are some conditions that can increase the risk. Family history and autoimmune diseases that impact ovarian function play a role, says Roth. People with genetic conditions, like Turner syndrome, which impacts ovary development, and Fragile X syndrome, are also at greater risk.
There isn’t much evidence that lifestyle practices can protect against early menopause, but research has found that certain factors can impact the age of menopause onset: smoking cigarettes negatively impacts fertility and can increase the rate at which eggs are used; regular and long-term smokers may start menopause one or two years earlier than non-smokers. Pelvic radiation and chemotherapy can also negatively impact fertility and increase the risk of early menopause, says Roth.
Overall, doctors emphasize that IVF and other fertility treatments have helped many people start families and using them won’t trigger early menopause.
“People should be aware that fertility and menopause are inextricably linked—the decline in fertility leads to menopause—but we do not have evidence that these procedures cause these changes in fertility or perimenopause to happen sooner,” says Noble. “It would be a disservice to women to scare them off of these very important fertility planning options.”
