Szegda KL, et al. - This study was planned to assess the association of adult adiposity with early menopause. As per findings, women who were underweight in early or mid-adulthood were at increased risk for early menopause, this can assist in efforts to better understand the etiology of early menopause. They recommended additional prospective research to assess how low adiposity may physiologically impact timing of menopause.

Methods

• Researchers performed a prospective cohort study examining data from 78,759 premenopausal women from the Nurses’ Health Study II who were followed from 1989 to 2011 for incidence of early natural menopause.
• For this study, participants were aged 25–42 years and premenopausal at baseline in 1989, when information on menopausal status, height and weight was reported via questionnaire.
• Along with information on smoking, physical activity and other behavioral and health-related factors, they updated information on menopausal status, type of menopause (natural, surgical, radiation/chemotherapy), hormone therapy use and weight every two years.
• They used multivariable logistic regression to assess odds ratios for early menopause, defined as natural menopause before age 45 years, by aspects of adiposity.

Results

• Reports of 2,804 participants with early natural menopause were identified.
• Non-linear association was observed between body mass index (BMI) and risk for early menopause.
• Compared to women with BMI = 18.5–22.4 kg/m², a significant 30% higher odds of early menopause were observed among women with BMI < 18.5 kg/m² (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.08, 1.57), while women with BMIs between 25.0–29.9 kg/m² had marked 21–30% lower odds.
• In fully adjusted analysis, odds were not higher in women with BMI ≥ 35.0 kg/m².
• In addition, they observed non-linear associations with higher odds in underweight women for age 18 and age 35 BMI, though lower odds for overweight women was only observed for age 35 BMI.
• Among women with age 18 BMI < 18.5 kg/m² reporting severe weight cycling, odds were highest.