Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Menopause marks a period of significant changes on hormones and on the women’s lifestyle, which can interfere with their subsequent health. Menopause marks not only the end of the woman’s reproductive life, but also the upcoming associated risks for many morbidities, as well. The increasing prevalence of diabetes (either type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) or type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) renders a necessity to investigate its effects on women’s age of menopause.

Aim: The aim of this review was to systematically evaluate all the available literature on how diabetes affects women’s age at menopause.

Method: An extensive literature search was conducted through electronic databases (Pubmed, Scopus, Cinahl and Medline) with the terms of ‘age’, ‘menopause’, ‘premature’ and ‘diabetes mellitus’, till December 2019. The search yielded 116 results, 11 of which met the inclusion criteria.

Results: Five of the included studies examined the correlation of T1DM with the age of menopause and six studies of T2DM, respectively.

In the EPIC study, menopause occurred significantly earlier among women with T1DM (WT1DM). In a sample of Finnish WT1DM the age at menopause was reported to be the same as in general population. In the OVADIA study, a similar menopausal age was reported in both groups. In the DCCT/EDIC cohort, WT1DM appeared a similar age at menopause onset compared to the average age of menopausal women in the U.S. In the FAD study, a younger age at menopause, among WT1DM was demonstrated.

In the SWAN study, women with T2DM (WT2DM) experienced their final menstrual period in a significantly earlier age than women without diabetes. Moreover, in an Indian population, the average age of menopause among diabetic women was much younger than in non-diabetic. In a Latin American study, the risk of being postmenopausal in WT2DM aged 40–44 years was found to be nearly three times higher than in those without. In contrast, in a study of Mexican WT2DM was found that they experienced a similar menopausal age with non-diabetic women. Likewise, in the EPIC study no relationship between diabetes and age at menopause was observed. Finally, the age of menopause onset in Nigerian WT2DM was found similar to the age of commonly reported in Nigerian women population.

Conclusion: The findings of this systematic review remain inconclusive regarding the effect of diabetes on age at menopause. It is important to verify that diabetes could affect the age of menopause, through future well-organized multicenter studies.