A preliminary study from the UK has found that entering menopause before the age of 40 may increase your chance of developing dementia later in life by up to 35 percent.
The study has not yet been published, but will be presented later this week at the American Heart Association’s 2022 conference in Chicago.
It examined the data of more 153,000 women who were involved in a UK Biobank study investigating the genetic information of 500,000 UK citizens. It found that women who entered menopause before the age of 45 were 1.3 times more likely to be diagnosed with early dementia by 65.
The link may be caused by a drop in oestrogen, according to the study’s author Wenting Hao, a doctoral candidate at Shandong University in Jinan, China.
“We know that the lack of oestrogen over the long term enhances oxidative stress, which may increase brain ageing and lead to cognitive impairment,” Hao said.
Dr Donald Lloyd-Jones, professor of preventive medicine, medicine and paediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, believes further research needs to be done to make a more definitive link.
“The scope and breadth of the data is important and impressive, but it doesn’t give us the details we need to understand the study’s full implications,” Dr Lloyd-Jones told CNN.
“What we see in this study is a modest association between premature menopause and a subsequent risk for dementia.”
Dr Donald Lloyd-Jones, who is president of the American Heart Association, said that premature menopause “…has to do with a more rapid biological ageing of all of the body’s tissues, including premature ageing of our organs and their function.”
“It’s a red flag on many levels when a woman goes through premature menopause, as it indicates there may be some underlying genetic, environmental or health behaviour issues that we really need to focus on,” he added.
In the US, the typical onset of menopause is age 52, according to the US Department of Health and Human Service’s Office on Women’s Health. In Australia, the average age is 51.
Early menopause (between age 40 and 45) is different to premature menopause (before age 40) though both can be caused by the same factors, including autoimmune disorders such as chronic fatigue syndrome, HIV, chemotherapy or smoking.
“Functional menopause due to surgery is less risky than biological menopause occurring early, as again it may be a red flag that other tissues are ageing more rapidly, so a woman needs to really get with her doctor and have a plan to optimise all of her health factors,” Lloyd-Jones suggested.
“However, I think premature menopause is a more significant signal than just being about oestrogen.”
“Just as gestational diabetes or preeclampsia should be a sign, premature menopause says this is a woman who is on the faster track to having a problem with her heart or her brain.”
“Let’s control everything else we can control about her diet, physical activity, weight and smoking with lifestyle changes and if needed, medication,” Lloyd-Jones added.
Wenting Hao suggested a number of ways women who experience early menopause may be able to reduce their risk of cognitive decline.
“This includes routine exercise, participation in leisure and educational activities, not smoking and not drinking alcohol (and) maintaining a healthy weight,” she said.
“Being aware of this increased risk can help women practice strategies to prevent dementia and to work with their physicians to closely monitor their cognitive status as they age.”