How premature menopause can cause early death: new study

Women who go into menopause before 40 are four times more likely to die young from cancer — and twice as likely to die young of heart disease or something else, a new study from Finland has found.

However, the researchers say that using hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for more than six months can cut the all-cause and cancer mortality risk by about half. They presented their findings Saturday at the 26th European Congress of Endocrinology in Stockholm.

“Various health risks of women with premature ovarian insufficiency have not been well recognized and the use of HRT is often neglected,” said Hilla Haapakoski, a PhD student at the University of Oulu, who led the study.

“We hope to improve the health of these women by increasing awareness of the risks among healthcare professionals and the women themselves,” she added.

Menopause is when a woman’s ovaries stop releasing eggs — her body produces less estrogen and progesterone. It happens when she has gone 12 consecutive months without a period.

Though most women naturally enter menopause between 45 and 55, 1% experience premature menopause or premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) and go through menopause before 40.

Genetic disorders, autoimmune conditions, chemotherapy, or surgery to remove the ovaries can lead to POI, but in many cases, the exact cause is not obvious.

Researchers from the University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital compared 5,817 Finnish women diagnosed with spontaneous or surgical POI between 1988 and 2017 to 22,859 women without the condition.

They calculated the cancer and heart disease risks while noting that women with POI from surgery did not have an added mortality risk.

Though other studies have linked premature menopause to early death, the Finland team believes their research includes the largest sample size and encompasses the longest period, 30 years.

“To our knowledge, this is the largest study performed on the linkage between premature ovarian insufficiency and mortality risk,” Haapakoski said.

HRT is the most common treatment for POI — it replaces estrogen and other hormones the ovaries aren’t producing anymore — but the researchers say most women do not follow the recommendations for taking these drugs.

The team plans to soon explore if POI patients are more likely to have cancer, heart disease, or other illnesses — and if HRT over a long period can affect these conditions.