Women with this syndrome are more likely to go through menopause before the age of 45, according to a study by Swedish researchers.
The arrival of the menopause is often feared by women because of its inconveniences (hot flashes, weight gain, night sweats…) but also because they mark the end of periods and the possibility of having a child. She is even more difficult to live with when she is early that is to say when it occurs before the age of 45. According to a cohort study carried out by researchers from the Karolinska Institute (Sweden) and published in the journal JAMALthe arrival of menopause would be accelerated by a syndrome that touches 20 to 40% women* of childbearing age and is characterized by migraineslower back pain, bloating, mood disorders, sensitive breasts or even depression a few days before the period.
An “increased” risk of early menopause
This syndrome is known as PMS Or “premenstrual syndrome“. The study was based on 3,635 American women, some of whom reported PMS symptoms, others not. The researchers followed the participants for around twenty years to assess the age of arrival of their menopause. They excluded women with cancer. Early menopause was defined in the study as occurring before the age of 45. Result : “Compared to women without PMS, those who suffer from it are 2.67 times more likely to have early menopause” said Dr. Yihui Yand, lead author of the study. Women with PMS are at risk of risk “increased” early menopause.
The authors of the study also noted that the link between PMS and early menopause was stronger in smokersTHE women with PMS are hypersensitive to hormonal fluctuations during their menstrual cycle, which partly explains why they are more vulnerable to hormonal changes like menopause. In question, a possible dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary pathway which plays a key role in regulating the menstrual cycle. “Women prone to PMS and early menopause tend to present imbalances in the function of the hypothalamus” noted the scientists. Finally, they report that women with PMS have a high risk of moderate or severe vasomotor symptoms at menopause (hot flashes…).
The heart health of women in early menopause must be monitored
The researchers would like to emphasize that their results do not prove that premenstrual disorders definitely cause early menopause but thatthere is a correlation between the two. “It is important to identify women at risk of early menopause because of its link to poorer heart, brain and bone health” recalled Dr. Stéphanie Faubion, director of the Mayo gynecological clinic (United States) and of the American Menopause Society (United States) on CNN. Future research on health risk assessment after menopause is thus warranted by the authors.
*Inserm