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can delaying menopause reduce risk of chronic disease?
4 minute read
the treatments currently available for menopause are limited, leading to it being poorly managed.
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every person with a female reproductive system will go through menopause at some point in their life. the transition, marked by the end of menstrual periods and ovarian follicular function, tends to begin between 45 and 55, depending on the person.
during this time, levels of estrogen and progesterone, the two most important female hormones, begin to dip. the physical effects of these hormones dropping are significant and drive menopause symptoms, including hot flashes, vaginal dryness, mood changes, insomnia, and more.
aside from the ailments that arise during menopause, women are also more likely to develop significant or severe health conditions. research has shown that after menopause, the rate at which women develop heart disease, stroke, diabetes, dementia, cancer, and bone fractures goes up. while the normal aging process plays a role in that, it’s now thought that menopause contributes to it more than previously thought.
medical researchers investigating the detrimental effects menopause has on a woman’s overall health and quality of life have begun to explore the idea of delaying menopause altogether—if it’s possible, that is.
menopause and hormones
the hormones involved in the onset of menopause are most notably estrogen and progesterone. these steroid hormones are crucial in various processes in the biological female body.
estrogen is responsible for the development of female characteristics. it also carries messages throughout the body that control various systems, including reproduction, the urinary tract, the heart and blood vessels, bones, breasts, skin, hair, mucous membranes, pelvic muscles and the brain.
progesterone, the second most crucial hormone in the female body, also plays a role in many bodily processes, including ovulation, the thickening of the uterine lining for implantation, menstruation, supporting pregnancy, improving mood, supporting thyroid function, and supporting lactation.
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together, these hormones are the mvps of the physiological health of the female body, and when menopause hits, they retire from the game. when they’re no longer able to support the team, certain areas are left vulnerable, leading to the increased risk of various chronic diseases.
chronic disease risk after menopause
since vital hormones begin to drop during menopause—those that play a role in many bodily functions—all they are tasked to support are left in a lurch. the loss of regular estrogen levels, especially, is thought to increase the risk of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and arthritis, to name a few.
research continues to search for connections between chronic disease and hormonal levels, with some uncertainty still plaguing medical scientists. what is known is that when the reproductive hormones drop, insulin resistance, fat mass, dyslipidemia, and endothelial dysfunction can occur. these are all markers of cardiometabolic health and drive worsened health outcomes in the 10 to 15 years following the onset of menopause.
the work of the ovaries and these hormones dictate the changes that will develop because of their role in chemical signalling in the body, a process that medical researchers still have yet to understand.
essentially, when the ovaries stop functioning as they should, releasing mature eggs and fostering hormone production, their communications throughout the body halt. without proper communication, organ systems that rely on those messages begin to malfunction as well.
menopause treatments and delaying menopause
the available treatments for menopause are limited, leading to it being poorly managed.
hormone therapy is often the first-line treatment, as it is most effective for relieving one of the most common symptoms, hot flashes. it involves introducing synthetic estrogen into the body to pick up the slack of the estrogen that’s lost.
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other options for various symptoms include low-dose antidepressants, gabapentin, clonidine, fezolinetant, and osteoporosis medication. so far, no medical researchers have been able to develop a drug that could treat menopause as a whole, thus stopping the effects it has on the body.
in april of this year, researchers conducted a study that involved collecting and freezing ovarian tissue before menopause hits and then transplanting it back into the body during the transitional time. they found that the process had high viability in delaying menopause and extending the fertile life span in females, potentially lasting for decades following the procedure.
other medical scientists, namely those with the company oviva therapeutics in new york, ny, have also begun looking at pharmaceutical options to delay menopause in an effort to assess and reduce the risk of chronic disease in females as they age.
they have investigated the synthetic version of the anti-müllerian hormone (amh) because it controls the number of mature follicles in each menstrual cycle. it also dictates how large the holes are in the follicles. this is important because larger holes will lose more eggs and vice versa. utilizing the amh hormone therapeutically is thought to reduce the number of eggs lost during menstruation and prolong the function of the ovaries by keeping ovarian reserves high.
another study out of columbia university is tackling the same issue in a different way. medical researchers involved in the clinical trial are using an immunosuppressive drug known as rapamycin, which is typically used to reduce the risk of organ rejection in transplantation. the trial is now being conducted in women after a round of animal studies found that rapamycin can extend ovarian function by influencing how many eggs mature each month.
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future directions and what it means for females
while all the research sounds promising in terms of delaying menopause or continuing to keep the ovaries as healthy as possible as women age, the goal is not to extend the time a person experiences a period or can continue to get pregnant, even if those are the potential results.
researchers aim to understand the ovaries further, their role in whole-body health in females, and how to delay menopause in a way that reduces the risk of chronic disease that comes along with it. by further understanding the aging process in the female body, medical researchers can get closer to developing therapeutic options that can encourage a better quality of life for longer in aging populations.
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