A large study of nearly 80,000 women concluded in 2017 that being underweight increases the risk of experiencing early menopause. The study, led by researcher Kathleen Szegda of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst (USA), was published in the journal Human Reproduction.
The experts started from the approach of previous research in which high and low levels of fat had been linked to reproductive function. The hypothesis was that a woman’s weight can also affect when menopause begins.
To test this theory, the researchers analyzed data from 78,759 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II, and followed them clinically between 1989 and 2011. The women were between 25 and 42 years old, and information was collected about their height, weight, and condition. of menopause using a questionnaire. This information, along with data on hormone therapy use, was updated every 2 years.
For the study, “early menopause” was defined as when it occurred before the woman’s 45th birthday.
The experts used multiple regression models to assess early menopause risk, and overall, 2,804 women in the study reported experiencing it.
The risk of early menopause increased by almost a third
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) consider that a weight between 18.5 and 24.9 kilograms per square meter is normal , while women who weigh less than that amount are considered underweight (for example, measuring 1.70 cm and weighing 53 kg or less would place us in patients at risk of early menopause).
In the study, women with a body mass index (BMI) less than 18.5 kilograms per square meter, at any age, were 30% more likely to experience early menopause compared to women whose BMI was between 18.5 and 22.4 kilograms per square meter.
The researchers also found that women whose BMI was between 25 and 29.9 kilos per square meter (for example, measuring 1.70 cm and weighing 73 kg or more) were up to 30% less likely to experience early menopause. The highest probability of having early menopause appeared to be among women who, when they were 18 years old, had a body mass index below 18.5 kilos per square meter and reported experiencing a “severe weight cycle.”
Finally, women who had a BMI of less than 17.5 kilos per square meter by the age of 18 (for example, measuring 1.70 cm and weighing 50 kg) were 50% more likely to have early menopause compared to women of normal weight.
“Those women who weigh less than normal in early to mid-adulthood may be at higher risk for early menopause,” Szegda summarizes. This is “associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and other health conditions such as cognitive decline, osteoporosis and premature death, so these findings have important implications for women and their doctors,” he explains.
BMI table
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Low weight = BMI less than 18.5 kg / m².
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Normal weight = BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 kg / m².
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Overweight = BMI between 25 and 29.9 kg / m ².
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Grade I obesity = BMI between 30 and 34.9 kg / m²
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Grade II obesity = BMI between 35 and 39.9 kg / m².
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Grade III obesity (morbid obesity) = BMI greater than 40 kg / m ².
Reference: Adult adiposity and risk of early menopause. KL Szegda BW Whitcomb AC Purdue-Smithe ME Boutot JE Manson SE Hankinson BA Rosner ER Bertone-Johnson. Human Reproduction, 2017. DOI: doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dex304
