Menopause
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Menopause
General Information
NEWS:
Hot Flashes and Your Heart: What's the Connection? " … women who have lots of bothersome hot flashes or night sweats after menopause may be at increased risk for heart disease. The study also found that older women who still have severe hot flashes turned out to be the hormone-therapy users who were at greatest risk for heart attacks. … We think persisting menopausal symptoms (hot flashes or night sweats) in older women may signal the presence of increased risk factors for heart disease or diseased arteries. But it's just an association at this point [i.e. not proof of cause and effect]. As a result of those findings, our advice to older women who have persisting hot flashes and night sweats, is that they try to get off of hormone therapy, and have themselves checked and treated for cardiovascular risk factors."
Hot Flashes Are Associated With Ambulatory Systolic Hypertension"Compared with women who did not report hot flashes, those who reported having had hot flashes had significantly higher mean awake systolic BP (about 9 mm Hg higher; P < .004) and sleep systolic BP (about 10 mm Hg higher; P = .007). After controlling for age, race/ethnicity, body mass index, and menopausal status, hot flashes continued to independently predict average awake and sleep systolic BP."
Menopause Symptoms May Hamper Sex
Severe Hot Flashes May Be Linked to Chronic Insomnia "Hot flashes occurred in 12.5% of premenopausal women, 79.0% of perimenopausal women, and 39.3% of postmenopausal women. Chronic insomnia occurred in 36.5% of premenopausal women, 56.6% of perimenopausal women, and 50.7% of postmenopausal women (P < .001). Prevalence of symptoms of chronic insomnia increased with the severity of hot flashes. More than 80% of perimenopausal women and postmenopausal women who had severe hot flashes also had symptoms of chronic insomnia."
ARTICLES:
Calming the Symptoms of Menopause "During the menopausal transition, periods are less regular, and eventually they stop. Women are considered to be menopausal once they no longer have a period for at least 1 year. Although menopause typically occurs in women between the ages of 45 and 55 years, it may occur in a woman’s 30s or as late as her 60s."
JAMA patient page. Women's sexual concerns after menopause.
JOURNAL ARTICLES:
Age at Menarche and Menopause and Breast Cancer Risk in the International BRCA1/2 Carrier Cohort Study (Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention 2007)
Age at natural menopause in Yazd, Islamic Republic of Iran. (Menopause. 2007) "We found that the mean (SD) age at menopause was 47.39 (5.089) years (95% CI: 46.85-47.92) and the median age was 48 years. The Iranian women demonstrated a moderate to high frequency of reporting four symptoms in vasomotor, vaginal, sleep-related, emotional, and somatic categories."
Assessing menopausal symptoms among healthy middle aged women with the Menopause Rating Scale. (Maturitas. 2007) "CONCLUSION: In this specific healthy population, age, the menopause, sexual inactivity and educational level were independent risk factors predicting more severe menopausal symptoms."
Association of eating frequency with body fatness in pre- and postmenopausal women. (Obesity (Silver Spring). 2007) "DISCUSSION: Frequent eating was not found to be related to adiposity in premenopausal women, but it was associated with increased body fat in postmenopausal women. Possible explanations could be that the frequent eating is not associated with a physically active lifestyle in postmenopausal women or that frequent eating predisposes women after menopause to a higher energy intake by increasing food stimuli and rendering it more difficult for them to control energy balance."
BONE MINERAL DENSITY CHANGES DURING THE MENOPAUSE TRANSITION IN A MULTI-ETHNIC COHORT OF WOMEN. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007) “During the late peri- and postmenopause bone loss was approximately 35-55% slower in women in the top versus the bottom tertile of body weight. Apparent ethnic differences in rates of spine bone loss were largely explained by differences in body weight. Conclusions: Bone loss accelerates substantially in the late perimenopause and continues at a similar pace in the first postmenopausal years. Body weight is a major determinant of the rate of menopausal BMD loss whereas ethnicity, per se, is not. Health care providers should consider this information when deciding when to screen women for osteoporosis.”
Depressive symptoms during the menopausal transition: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). (J Affect Disord. 2007) "CONCLUSION: Most midlife women do not experience high depressive symptoms."
Dietary magnesium deficiency induces heart rhythm changes, impairs glucose tolerance, and decreases serum cholesterol in post menopausal women. (J Am Coll Nutr. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS: Magnesium balance may be a suitable indicator of magnesium depletion under experimental conditions. Magnesium deficiency resulting from feeding a diet that would not be considered having an atypical menu induces heart arrhythmias, impairs glucose homeostasis, and alters cholesterol and oxidative metabolism in post menopausal women. A dietary intake of about 4.12 mmol (100 mg) Mg/8.4 MJ is inadequate for healthy adults and may result in compromised cardiovascular health and glycemic control in post menopausal women."
Effect of early menopause on bone mineral density and fractures. (Menopause. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS:: Early menopause is a risk factor for osteoporosis. Women with an early menopause should have bone density testing performed within 10 years of menopause so that osteopenia or osteoporosis will be diagnosed early and appropriate antiresorptive therapy initiated."
Endogenous estrogen is not associated with cognitive performance before, during, or after menopause. (Menopause. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS:: These results do not support the hypothesis that estrogen or menopausal status affects cognitive performance in middle-aged women."
Height loss, forearm bone density and bone loss in menopausal women: a 15-year prospective study. The Nord-Trondelag Health Study, Norway. (Osteoporos Int. 2007) "CONCLUSION: Height loss is frequent in middle-aged women, and increased height loss indicates a generalized state of bone loss."
Helping midlife women predict the onset of the final menses: SWAN, the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation. (Menopause. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS:: Age, menstrual cycle recall, smoking status, and hormone measurements can be used to estimate when the FMP will occur, allowing for more precise estimates for older midlife women: in the most extreme cases, ie, age 54, high estradiol level, current smoking, and high follicle-stimulating hormone level, the FMP can be estimated to within 1 year."
Homocysteine, menopause and cardiovascular disease. (J Br Menopause Soc. 2007)
Hormones and Sexuality During Transition to Menopause. (Obstet Gynecol. 2007) "CONCLUSION: This study confirms the observation that sexual dysfunction increases over the menopausal transition. Several factors associated with sexual dysfunction include low DHEAS, absence of a sexual partner, anxiety, and children under the age of 18 living at home."
Hot flashes are associated with increased ambulatory systolic blood pressure. (Menopause. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS:: Hot flashes are associated with increased awake and sleep systolic BP independent of menopausal status. Further investigation is warranted to elucidate the mechanisms by which hot flashes are associated with BP."
Hot flushes, bone mineral density, and fractures in older postmenopausal women. (Obstet Gynecol. 2007) "CONCLUSION: Among osteoporotic women who are 5 or more years postmenopausal, greater severity of persistent hot flushes is not associated with progressive bone loss or risk of fracture, despite previous research linking hot flushes to bone loss during early menopause."
Influence of menopause on mood: a systematic review of cohort studies. (Climacteric. 2007)
[Magnesium deficit in climacteric women] (Klin Med (Mosk). 2007) "Normal magnesium levels were found in less than 50% of women with clinical manifestations of DM. MD was associated with a higher frequency of abdominal obesity and bone fractures of extremities."
Night sweats, sleep disturbance, and depression associated with diminished libido in late menopausal transition and early postmenopause: baseline data from the Herbal Alternatives for Menopause Trial (HALT). (Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2007) "RESULTS: Of 341 women, 64% had diminished libido, 18% had moderate to severe depression, and 43% had poor sleep quality. Women averaged 4.6 hot flashes and 1.9 night sweats per day. Depressive symptoms (P = .003), poor sleep (P = .02), and night sweats (P = .04) were significantly associated with diminished libido."
Overweight and obese perimenopausal and postmenopausal women exhibit increased abnormal mammary epithelial cytology. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2007) "High body mass index (BMI >/= 25 kg/m(2)) is associated with increased postmenopausal breast cancer incidence and mortality. However, few studies have explored associations between BMI and direct measures on target tissue. … These data suggest that overweight in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women is associated with direct cytologic abnormalities within the breast."
Panic attacks and risk of incident cardiovascular events among postmenopausal women in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study. (Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2007) "CONCLUSION: Panic attacks are relatively common among postmenopausal women and appear to be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in older women."
Risk factors for clinical fractures among postmenopausal women: a 10-year prospective study. (Menopause Int. 2007) "CONCLUSION: In postmenopausal women, over a 10-year follow-up, the AR (absolute risk) of a second clinical fracture is highest in the five years after any first clinical fracture. The AR for a first clinical fracture is lower and depends on osteoporosis and age.
Sleep disturbance in menopause. (Menopause. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS:: Primary sleep disorders (apnea and restless legs syndrome) are common in this population. Amelioration of hot flashes may reduce some complaints of poor sleep but will not necessarily alleviate underlying primary sleep disorders. Because these can result in significant morbidity and mortality, they require careful attention in peri- and postmenopausal women."
Symptoms Associated With Menopausal Transition and Reproductive Hormones in Midlife Women. (Obstet Gynecol. 2007) "CONCLUSION: The study highlights the role of menopausal stages for some symptoms of midlife women and indicates that stages in the transition to menopause are associated with hot flushes; aches, joint pain, and stiffness; and depressed mood. Fluctuations of E2, decreased levels of inhibin b, and increased FSH levels were associated with these symptoms."
[The influence of age and the beginning of menopause on the lipid status, LDL oxidation, and CRP in healthy women] (Srp Arh Celok Lek. 2007) "CONCLUSION: In healthy women older than 56 as in menopausal women, we found significantly higher levels of LDL cholesterol and inflammatory markers. These results suggest that strategies of primary prevention in women are needed to reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease."
The relative contributions of menopause and aging to postmenopausal reduction in intervertebral disk height. (Climacteric. 2007) "Conclusion The DXA measurement of intervertebral disk space is precise. After menopause, intervertebral disk space shows a progressive decrease that almost entirely occurs in the first 5 - 10 years since menopause, suggesting that the estrogen decrease may rapidly change connective tissue metabolism in the intervertebral disks."
The timing of natural menopause in Poland and associated factors. (Maturitas. 2007) " RESULTS: The overall median age at natural menopause was 51.25 years; 25th percentile 49; 75th percentile 54 years."
Thyroid dysfunction in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. (J Br Menopause Soc. 2007) "Thyroid dysfunction is common, especially among women over the age of 50. In caring for peri- and post-menopausal women, it is important to recognize the changing clinical manifestations of thyroid disease with age. Postmenopausal women are at increased risk of both osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease, and untreated thyroid disease may exacerbate these risks. Screening for thyroid dysfunction in asymptomatic individuals is controversial, but aggressive case-finding should be pursued, especially in older women."
Vitamin K(2) supplementation improves hip bone geometry and bone strength indices in postmenopausal women. (Osteoporos Int. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin K(2) helps maintaining bone strength at the site of the femoral neck in postmenopausal women by improving BMC and FNW, whereas it has little effect on DXA-BMD."
[What a healthy lifestyle stands for at the menopause: the role of the gynaecologist.] (Gynecol Obstet Fertil. 2007)
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