Is there a secular trend in age of menopause?

doi:10.1016/0378-5122(78)90020-8

Maturitas

Volume 1, Issue 2, September 1978, Pages 133-139

https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-5122(78)90020-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

A review of the difficulties encountered in analyzing a secular trend in age of menopause is given with emphasis on the advantages and disadvantages of the recollective and “status quo” methods. It is suggested that no methodology except that which is prospective will give accurate ages of menopause.

Accepting this given, a review of the literature from 1864 to 1964 is undertaken, that suggests there may be a secular trend in Denmark, England, France, Germany, Russia and the USA. This must, however, be corroborated by longitudinal, cross cultural, generational research of mothers' and daughters' ages at menopause, or at least, cohort analysis of specific populations.

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Citation Excerpt :
Results from cross-sectional studies have indicated that endocrine changes characteristic of the onset of the perimenopause begin at around age 45.48 The median age at menopause among white women from industrialized countries ranges between 50 and 52 years and at onset of the perimenopause is 47.5 years,49–53 with slight evidence of increasing age at menopause over time.53–57 These onsets seem to vary by race and ethnicity58–60 and are affected by demographic and lifestyle factors.50,51,55,57–69
Determinants of age at menopause in women attending menopause clinics in Italy
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We analysed the mean age at menopause and its determinants in 31,000 women attending menopause clinics in Italy.
Between 1997 and 2003 we conducted a large cross-sectional study on the characteristics of peri- and post-menopausal women attending a network of first-level outpatient menopause clinics in Italy for general counseling or treatment of menopausal symptoms. Spontaneous menopause was defined as natural cessation of menses for 12 or more months. A total of 31,834 women with spontaneous menopause entered the study.
The mean age at spontaneous menopause was 51.2. The age at menopause did not markedly changed with cohort of birth. Higher education was associated with lower age at menopause (51.1 in women with low education versus 51.3 for women with high school or university degree, p < 0.05). A higher body mass index (BMI) was associated with later age at menopause. Smokers reported a lower age at menopause (51.2 in nonsmokers versus 51.1 in smokers, p < 0.05). A later age at menarche was associated with a later age at menopause. Likewise, lifelong irregular menstrual cycles and higher parity were related with later age at menopause. No association emerged between ever oral contraceptive use and age at menopause.
Low educational level, lower BMI, smoking, early menarche, nulliparity and regular cycles are independently associated with lower age at natural menopause in a large sample of women attending menopause clinics in Italy. However, in absolute terms the effect of these factors in our sample is very small.
Epidemiology of menopause: Demographics, environmental influences, and ethnic and international differences in the menopausal experience
2007, Menopause
This chapter provides a very scholarly and up-to-date review of the epidemiology of the menopause and point out areas that are still not clear, stressing the importance of the need for more longitudinal studies. A number of demographic, menstrual and reproductive, and lifestyle factors appear to be important determinants of the age at which natural menopause occurs and to have meaningful relationships to the varied symptom experiences of women. However, a number of the relationships are inconsistent possibly due to varying methodological approaches and limitations, and others remain largely unexplored. Therefore, much remains to be learned about how these factors affect hormones at the physiologic level and thus determine the onset of the perimenopause, the timing of the final menstrual period, and the occurrence of the constellation of symptoms that are associated with the menopause transition. Furthermore, increased understanding of the underlying physiologic bases of these influences needs to include potential racial/ethnic differences in physiologic responses to lifestyle factors and other environmental exposures, as well as increased understanding of the cultural contexts, cultural differences, and cultural sensitivities that affect the presentation and experience of the menopausal transition. Increasing knowledge about these relationships ultimately offers women and their health care providers enhanced choices and alternatives, based on deeper understanding, to deal with the individual presentations of menopause.
Epidemiology of Menopause: Demographics, Environmental Influences, and Ethnic and International Differences in the Menopausal Experience
2007, Treatment of the Postmenopausal Woman: Basic and Clinical Aspects, Third Edition
This chapter provides a very scholarly and up-to-date review of the epidemiology of the menopause and point out areas that are still not clear, stressing the importance of the need for more longitudinal studies. A number of demographic, menstrual and reproductive, and lifestyle factors appear to be important determinants of the age at which natural menopause occurs and to have meaningful relationships to the varied symptom experiences of women. However, a number of the relationships are inconsistent possibly due to varying methodological approaches and limitations, and others remain largely unexplored. Therefore, much remains to be learned about how these factors affect hormones at the physiologic level and thus determine the onset of the perimenopause, the timing of the final menstrual period, and the occurrence of the constellation of symptoms that are associated with the menopause transition. Furthermore, increased understanding of the underlying physiologic bases of these influences needs to include potential racial/ethnic differences in physiologic responses to lifestyle factors and other environmental exposures, as well as increased understanding of the cultural contexts, cultural differences, and cultural sensitivities that affect the presentation and experience of the menopausal transition. Increasing knowledge about these relationships ultimately offers women and their health care providers enhanced choices and alternatives, based on deeper understanding, to deal with the individual presentations of menopause.
Smoking and ovarian fertility
2001, Gynecologie Obstetrique et Fertilite
Le tabagisme diminue la fertilité naturelle et ce retard à la conception s’accroît avec le nombre de cigarettes fumées. En fécondation in vitro, les chances de grossesse par cycle diminuent chez la fumeuse par rapport à la non fumeuse (OR : 0,66). La ménopause survient en moyenne 2 ans plus tôt chez la fumeuse et, de même, l’altération de la réserve ovarienne est plus fréquente en cas de tabagisme. L’altération ovarienne survient, d’une part, précocement in utero sous l’effet du tabagisme maternel et d’autre part, après la puberté, dans la phase pré-ovulatoire où des effets toxiques, vasculaires et mutagènes conduisent à une inhibition de l’apoptose ovocytaire, favorisant l’aneuploïdie ovocytaire et ultérieurement les Fausses Couches Spontanées. La préservation de la fertilité ovarienne est un argument de plus à l’arrêt précoce de l’intoxication tabagique.
Smoking reduce the natural fertility and the delay to conceive increase with the number of cigarettes. In In Vitro Fertilization, the pregnancy rates per cycle are reduced with smokers compared with no smokers (OR: 0. 66). The menopause arrive on average 2 years before with the smokers and the damages of ovarian reserve increase with smoking. The deleterious effects on ovary arrive, early in utero with regard to maternal smoking, and after the puberty, on the pre-ovulatory period where toxic, vascular and mutagen effects induce inhibition of ovocyte apoptosis, promoting ovocyte aneuploidy and subsequently miscarriage. The protection of ovarian fertility is one argument more to stop early smoking.
Association between age at menarche and age at menopause among women of an indigenous population of North Bengal, India
2020, Journal of Biosocial Science

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Is there a secular trend in age of menopause?

Abstract

Growth at adolescence

Die beschleunigte Entwicklung der Jugend, verfrühte Menarche, verspätete Menopause, verlängerte Lebensdauer

Acta Anat.

Die beschleunigte Entwicklung der Jugend, verfrühte Menarche, verspätete Menopause, verlängerte Lebensdauer

Acta Anat.

The age of menopause in classical Greece and Rome

Hum. Biol.

Ages at menarche and menopause: some medieval authorities

Popul. Stud. (London)

The sexual life of women and the physiological and hygienic aspects

The menopause

The natural history of populations

Changes of life in men and women

Changes of life in men and women

Gynecology, obstetrics, menopause

Changing age of the menopause

Br. Med. J.

Age at menopause, United States 1960-62 in U.S

An investigation of the age at menopause

J. Biosoc. Sci.