This new study shows that women who go through menopause before they turn 40 are more likely to die young.
Scientists say that hormone treatment can lower the risk. The long-term Finnish study is the biggest one that has been done on the link
between menopause before its time and death.
Researchers say that their results show how important it is for these women to
get regular checkups and use hormone treatment correctly.
Most women go through menopause between 45 and 55 years old.
That being said, about 100 women go through menopause before they turn 40. This
is called premature menopause or premature ovarian insufficiency (POI).
Researchers have found that women who go through menopause early are more
likely to have long-term health issues like heart disease.
Scientists say they don't know what causes it, but it can happen on its own or
because of medical treatments like chemotherapy or surgery to remove the
ovaries.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is the most common procedure, but most women
who go through early menopause don't follow the directions and don't take the
drugs as prescribed.
The new study looked at more than 5,800 women in Finland who were diagnosed
with natural or medical premature ovarian failure between 1988 and 2017. The
researchers were from the University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital.
They looked at those women along with nearly 23,000 others who did not go
through POI.
They discovered that women who had spontaneous premature ovarian failure were
more than twice as likely to die of any cause or heart disease, and more than
four times as likely to die of cancer.
But for women who used HRT for more than six months, the risk of death from any
cause and cancer was cut in half.
No extra risk of dying young was there for women who went through early
menopause because of surgery.
Studies have also shown that women who go through menopause too soon are more
likely to die young. However, this link had never been studied in such a big
group of women and watched for up to 30 years.
"As far as we know, this is the largest study that looks at the link
between premature ovarian insufficiency and mortality risk," said Hilla
Haapakoski, who led the study.As one of the first studies to look at the
effects of both surgery and natural early ovarian failure on women's death
rates from all causes, heart disease, and cancer, and to see if HRT for more
than six months may lower death risk.To lower the number of unnecessary deaths,
our results show that women who have spontaneous premature ovarian failure
should have extra care given to their health.
The next thing the researchers are going to do is look into whether women who
go through early menopause are more likely to have other illnesses or
conditions, like cancer or heart disease, and whether long-term use of HRT
changes those conditions.
The University of Oulu's PhD student Haapakoski said, "Many of the health
risks that women with premature ovarian insufficiency face have not been fully
recognized, and the use of HRT is often overlooked."
She told us: "We hope to improve the health of these women by increasing
awareness of the risks among healthcare professionals and the women
themselves."
