Increasing climacteric symptoms in untreated perimenopausal Finnish women: a 10-year cohort study

Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to examine changes over a 10-year period in experiencing climacteric symptoms and their associations with sociodemographic and health-related background factors in a birth cohort of Finnish women who have never used menopausal hormone therapy (MHT).

Methods

This nationwide population-based follow-up study consists of 1491 women who during the follow-up period moved from the age group 42–46 years to the age group 52–56 years. The experience of climacteric symptoms was assessed by 12 symptoms commonly associated with the climacterium. The data were analyzed using statistical techniques.

Results

Both the intensity, expressed as a symptom score of four symptoms associated with a decrease in estrogen production (sweating, hot flushes, vaginal dryness, sleeping problems), and the prevalence of the five most common symptoms (sweating, hot flushes, sleeping problems, lack of sexual desire, depressive symptoms) increased clearly during the follow-up period. The examined sociodemographic and health-related variables did not explain the changes in experiencing the symptoms.

Conclusions

The results of this study can be considered in primary and occupational health care and in gynecological settings when working with symptomatic women or women with hidden climacteric problems and carrying out health promotion and counseling for them.

摘要

目的: 本研究的目的是研究从来没有使用过更年期激素治疗(MHT)的芬兰妇女出生队列在10年期间经历更年期症状的变化及其与社会人口统计学和健康相关的背景因素。

方法: 这项全国性的以人群为基础的随访研究包括1491名妇女, 她们在随访期间从42-46岁年龄组转移到52-56岁年龄组。评估了12个与更年期相关的症状。使用统计技术分析数据。

结果: 与雌激素的产生减少的四个症状(出汗, 潮热, 阴道干燥, 睡眠问题)评分, 在随访期间, 五种最常见症状(出汗、潮热、睡眠问题、性欲缺乏、抑郁症状)的患病率明显增加。所研究的社会人口统计学和健康相关变量并不能解释经历症状的变化。

结论: 这项研究的结果可以考虑在初级和职业卫生保健机构和妇科, 对于有症状的或有隐藏的更年期问题的妇女, 进行健康促进和咨询。

Keywords:

• Climacteric symptoms
• menopause
• middle aged
• health counseling
• follow-up study
• cohort study

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The concurrent joint Ethical Committee of the University of Turku and the Turku University Central Hospital approved the Health and Social Support Study (HeSSup Study). The study was carried out according to the Declaration of Helsinki. Participants signed a written consent agreeing to a prospective follow-up, including the registry data. The use of the data from the HeSSup Study in our research did not require separate ethics approval but was granted by the study group led by the Principal Investigator, Professor Markku Koskenvuo. All study members had to sign a written commitment to data protection, and all shared and analyzed data were pseudonymized before delivery.

Potential conflict of interest

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Source of funding

Nil.

Data availability statement

There are no linked research data sets for this article. Adhering to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Finnish legislation concerning sensitive data such as health-related information, the authors are not authorized to share the data.