Premature menopause can pose risk of multimorbidity, study suggests

A recent study has revealed that women who experience premature menopause are three times more likely to undergo chronic medical problems in their 60s compared to women who went through the suggested age of menopause.

The study was of 5107 women who were part of a national study of 11,258 Australian women, aged 45-50 years in 1996 and who were followed until 2016.

Women who have early menopause before the age of 50 or 51 could have the tendency to face medical condition known as multimorbidity, apart from the already known individual medical issues.

The study was published in the Human Reproduction journal.

Reports were taken of multiple women, of them being diagnosed with or treated for any of 11 health problems in the past three years: diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, osteoporosis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, anxiety or breast cancer. Women were considered to have multimorbidity if they had two or more of these conditions.

Compared with women who experienced menopause at the age of 50-51 years, women with premature menopause were twice as likely to develop multimorbidity by the age of 60.

Dr Xiaolin Xu, who conducted the research as part of his PhD thesis at the University of Queensland and who is now a research professor at Zhejiang University, China, said: "We found that 71% of women with premature menopause had developed multimorbidity by the age of 60 compared with 55% of women who experienced menopause at the age of 50-51. In addition, 45% of women with premature menopause had developed multimorbidity in their 60s compared with 40% of women who experienced menopause at the age of 50-51."

Dr Xu added: "We also found that premature menopause is associated with a higher incidence of individual chronic conditions."

The study suggests only the association of the development of multimorbidity and doesn't point that premature menopause causes the development of the medical condition.

Professor Gita Mishra, director of the Centre and senior author of the paper, said, "Our findings also highlight that multimorbidity should be considered as a clinical and public health priority when policy-makers are considering how to control and prevent chronic health problems in women."

From the research conducted, a remedy to slow down the development of health problems in women who experience premature menopause suggests, improving diet and exercise, avoid smoking, to have control of body weight, engaging in a mentally stimulating activity and regular screening for cancer and other medical problems related to the reproductive system.