Entering menopause before age 40 is associated with a 35% higher risk of developing dementia later in life, according to a preliminary study.
Premature menopause, as it is called, occurs when a woman’s ovaries stop producing hormones and the menstrual cycle ends by age 40. That’s about 12 years before the typical onset of menopause, which is age 52 in the United States, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services for Women’s Health.
“What we see in this study is a modest association between premature menopause and a subsequent risk of dementia,” said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, president of the American Heart Association. He did not participate in the study.
Why do women go through premature menopause? Unless the woman has had surgery to remove her ovaries and uterus, “this has to do with faster biological aging of all the tissues in the body, including premature aging of our organs and their functions,” Lloyd said. -Jones, who is professor of preventive medicine and pediatrics at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.
“It’s a red flag on many levels when a woman goes through premature menopause, as it indicates that there may be some underlying genetic, environmental or behavioral health issues that we really need to focus on,” he added.
Menopause before age 45
The research, which has not been published but will be presented this week at the American Heart Association’s 2022 conference, examined data from more than 153,000 women who participated in the UK Biobank, an ongoing study that examines genetic and health information from half a million. of people living in the UK.
“The scope and breadth of the data is important and impressive, but it doesn’t give us the details we need to understand the full implications of the study,” said Lloyd-Jones.
The study was adjusted for age, race, weight, education and income, tobacco and alcohol use, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and physical activity. It found that women who entered menopause before age 45 were 1.3 times more likely to be diagnosed with early-onset dementia at age 65.
Early menopause, which occurs between the ages of 40 and 45, is categorized separately from premature menopause before age 40, but both can be caused by many of the same factors: family history; autoimmune disorders, including chronic fatigue syndrome; HIV and AIDS; pelvic chemotherapy or radiation therapy for cancer treatment; surgery to remove the ovaries and uterus; and smoke.
“Functional menopause due to surgery is less risky than biological menopause that occurs early as, again, it can be a red flag that other tissues are aging faster, so a woman really needs to see her doctor and have a plan to optimize all your health factors,” said Lloyd-Jones.
role of estrogen
When women enter menopause, estrogen levels plummet, which may be one reason for the study’s findings, said lead author Wenting Hao, a doctoral candidate at Shandong University in Jinan, China.
“We know that long-term lack of estrogen increases oxidative stress, which can increase brain aging and lead to cognitive impairment,” Hao said in a note.
Oxidative stress occurs when the body’s antioxidant defenses cannot keep up with an overabundance of radicals, or unstable atoms that can damage cells. Free radicals occur naturally in the body as a byproduct of cellular metabolism, but levels can be increased by exposure to smoke, environmental toxins, pesticides, dyes, and air pollution.
“However, I think premature menopause is a more significant sign than just estrogen,” Lloyd-Jones said. “Just like gestational diabetes or preeclampsia should be a sign, premature menopause says this is a woman who is on the fast track to having a heart or brain problem.”
“We will control everything we can control about diet, physical activity, weight and smoking with lifestyle changes and, if necessary, medication,” added Lloyd-Jones.
There are several ways women going through early menopause can reduce their risk of cognitive decline, Hao said.
“This includes routine exercise, participation in leisure and educational activities, not smoking and not drinking alcohol (and) maintaining a healthy weight,” Hao said. “Being aware of this increased risk can help women practice strategies to prevent dementia and work with their doctors to closely monitor their cognitive status as they age.”
Source: CNN Brasil
