Menopause is the period in a woman’s life marked by the cessation of ovulation and the disappearance of periods, as explained by Health Insurance. It generally occurs between the ages of 45 and 55, when the ovaries stop their hormonal secretion, as well as the formation of an egg each month.
However, 1 to 2% of women under 40 have what is called premature ovarian failure, or early menopause. This is characterized by menstrual cycle disorders accompanied by a primary or secondary absence of periods for more than four months in a woman under 40 years of age. In a recent study, researchers from the University of Oulu (Finland) investigated the link between early menopause and the risk of premature death.
Early menopause puts people at higher risk of premature death
To carry out their study, the scientists analyzed, for more than thirty years, the data of 5,817 women who had been diagnosed with premature ovarian or surgical failure, but also the data of 22,589 women who did not have early menopause. After analyzing the results, they discovered that women suffering from premature ovarian failure were twice as likely to die from heart disease or any other disorder, but also four times more likely to die prematurely from cancer.
As Hilla Haapakoski, lead author of the study, explains in a statement, “This is the largest study conducted on the link between premature ovarian failure and mortality risk.” Following the discovery of these results, researchers also examined the impact of taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for more than six months on the mortality risks of women with early menopause.
Ovarian failure: taking hormone replacement therapy could limit the risk of premature death
“The use of hormone replacement therapy in the context of ovarian failure is often neglected”, according to researcher Hilla Haapakoski. However, in carrying out the study, scientists discovered that taking this treatment could reduce by half the risk of premature death from all causes in women affected by early menopause. As a reminder, hormone replacement therapy for menopause combines estrogen and progestin to relieve symptoms linked to estrogen deficiency, maintain bone density and prevent certain diseases such as coronary heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, vaginitis. atrophic.
“Our study is one of the first to explore both surgical and spontaneous premature ovarian failure in all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer-related mortality, but also to examine whether hormone replacement therapy for more than six months can reduce the risk of mortality”, indicates the expert. According to her, the study results suggest that special attention should be paid to the health of women with spontaneous premature ovarian failure “in order to reduce excess mortality.”
Sources:
- Mortality among women with POI, national register based case-control study – Bioscientifica
- Large-scale Finnish study discovers link between premature menopause and mortality risk – Eurekalert
- Menopause: definition, symptoms and diagnosis – Health Insurance