Early Menopause Linked To Chronic Diseases In Your Sixties

2023 Author: Lynn Laird | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 21:10

A recent study found that early menopause may present high risk for chronic disease in your 60s. Published Monday, January 20, in the journal Human Reproduction, the research was conducted among more than 5,000 Australian women aged 45-50 and lasted 20 years: from 1996 to 2016. Can we avoid such a situation? Discover the opinion of the specialists.

Early menopause responsible for serious health problems in old age

The life expectancy of women in high-income countries is already over 80 years, which means that a third of her life is spent after menopause. Typically, this occurs naturally at the age of 50, on average, and is characterized by the failure of the ovaries to function. However, it can occur prematurely at age 40. In this case, specialists associate it with a high risk of multiple chronic diseases (known as multimorbidity) like cardiovascular problems and diabetes.

To clarify, a connection between these chronic diseases and premature menopause had already been established. The scientists therefore wanted to determine whether the cessation of ovarian activity actually increases the risk of multimorbidity.

The scientific study was carried out by a team from the Center for Longitudinal Life Course Research at the University of Queensland in Australia. As mentioned above, more than 5,000 Australian women have been monitored for a period of 20 years. Aged between 45 and 50, the ladies had to fill out a form every three years indicating whether they had had any health problems. These included the following 11 diseases:

• Diabetes • High blood pressure • Heart disease • Stroke • Arthritis • Osteoporosis • Asthma • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease • Depression • Anxiety • Breast cancer

Final research results and preventive measures

For your information, this is the first study examining the link between these two phenomena. During the follow-up period (20 years), 2.3% of the women studied had early menopause and 55% developed multimorbidity. These women are therefore twice as likely to have many chronic diseases in their sixties. What is more, after 60 years the risk increases by 3 times. However, research does not show that premature menopause causes health problems but that there is only one link.

Gita Mishra, lead author of the study, says healthcare professionals need to pay special attention to prematurely menopausal women. This is a more in-depth study as well as an assessment of the risk factors for any treatment.

Currently, researchers are working on methods that can prevent or slow the development of health problems in women with early menopause. These are improved diet and physical activity, promotion of mental health, weight control and so on.

Study published here.