A soon-to-be-published, highly researched study found another critical reason for healthcare professionals to listen to their patients.
New Study: This Menopause Symptom May Hint at 4 Future Health Problems
Published on Oct. 21, 2024
Hallelujah! Society is finally recognizing that menopause symptoms are a fact of life. It’s been a long time coming: In 2023, research in the journal Nature demonstrated that 99% of past aging research had neglected to mention menopause. Fortunately, these days “the change” is being approached with a changed attitude.
As we start to close the gaps in our understanding of women’s aging, one study, to be published in December 2024 in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Maturitas, has found that there are more than 30 symptoms commonly associated with menopause. The UK and Netherlands-based research team suggests that scientists previously understood these symptoms to have little impact on women’s long-term wellness. “However, emerging evidence suggests that menopausal symptoms can have significant impacts on health,” this study states.
By completing a systematic scoping review of 53 studies, which included data from over 450,000 women enrolled in 28 longitudinal cohorts, the researchers found that there are four chronic health conditions that appear to be closest associated with severe menopause symptoms. Those are: cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes, and reduced bone mineral density.
In fact, the researchers suggested that the presence of particular menopause symptoms might help predict future health risk for these conditions. For instance, the team wrote that blood flow issues that cause symptoms of “temperature dysfunction”—think night sweats and hot flashes—were linked to MRI-detected lesions in the brain’s white matter, which has been demonstrated as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
These same blood flow-related symptoms have also been associated with a heightened risk of cardiovascular disease.
The Mayo Clinic explains one possible mechanism that could explain the connection between the two: “Women who have hot flashes, especially younger women who have them early in the transition into menopause, have arteries that are less likely to relax appropriately during exercise or stress. In other words, their arteries were stiffer than normal,” Mayo Clinic experts note. “In the women who had hot flashes, flow-mediated dilation did not tend to work properly. That could put those women at risk for future cardiovascular problems, including heart disease.”
A separate observation was that asymptomatic menopause was linked to a higher incidence of breast cancer, the Maturitas study says. Women who began menopause late—after the age of 55—were also more likely to develop breast cancer during their lifetime.
The study’s findings are just the beginning, and more research is needed to fully understand how menopause might shed light on various aspects of women’s health as they age.
While more is likely forthcoming, this finding might encourage menopausal individuals to advocate for their care vocally. It seems the occasional flush could hint at more than a sheepish inconvenience.
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