Certain gastrointestinal issues and stress may affect the severity of menopause symptoms, a study finds.
- Experiencing
menopause can come with a wide range of symptoms and challenges.
- One area of interest is how factors like gut
health influence menopause symptoms.
- Data from a recent study found that increased
perceived stress and certain gastrointestinal symptoms were associated
with worse menopause symptoms.
- Future research in this area may help discover
ways to improve menopause symptoms.
Menopause is common, but that doesn’t make it easy to
experience specific symptoms associated with it and the time of transition into menopause. Some may experience
worse symptoms than others. Research is ongoing about factors that may
influence the severity of menopause symptoms.
A study published in Menopause: The Journal of the
Menopause Society found that reporting higher stress
levels, having anxiety or depression, and experiencing constipation were
associated with more severe menopausal
symptoms. Future research can further examine the relationship
between these factors.
Common
challenges of menopause
The
Menopause and perimenopause are associated with
several symptoms that can be unpleasant and affect quality of life. A few symptoms include mood swings, joint pain, hot flashes, and trouble
sleeping.
Sometimes, people will refer to the symptoms in the
menopause and the perimenopause time
frame as menopause symptoms.
Non-study author Dr. Sherry Ross, an OB/GYN
and Women’s Health Expert at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa
Monica, CA, offered further insight into menopause symptoms to Medical News
Today:
“The most common symptoms
of menopause include irregular periods, hot flashes, sweating, insomnia,
depression, anxiety, feeling apprehensive, weight gain or loss, fatigue, poor
concentration, memory loss, low sex drive, vaginal dryness, and heart
palpitations. All of these disruptive symptoms affect a person’s quality of
life and have become a major challenge for the majority of people going through
this normal hormonal cycle.
Lack
of professional guidance and treatment from healthcare professionals is one of
the major roadblocks for millions of people suffering from these common
debilitating symptoms.”
The severity and number of symptoms can vary greatly.
So, researchers are interested in discovering more about what may impact
menopause symptoms.
How stress,
bowel movements affect menopausal symptoms
Researchers of the
current study sought to “evaluate whether there is a relationship between
menopausal symptoms, subjectively perceived stress, and reported
gastrointestinal symptoms in midlife women.”
The study was a cross-sectional study that included
693 participants. All participants were around fifty years old. Researchers
included premenopausal and postmenopausal women in their survey.
However, they excluded some individuals, including women who had hysterectomies
and those currently taking hormonal contraceptives.
To look at menopause symptoms, researchers had
participants fill out the
Participants filled out a questionnaire to measure
perceived stress. They also answered several questions about their health,
obstetric and gynecological history, and certain gastrointestinal symptoms.
When looking at gastrointestinal symptoms, participants had to answer questions
about their frequency of bowel movements and stool
consistency. Participants also had to answer specific demographic
questions like their age and level of education.
Results of the study found that diagnoses of anxiety
and depression and higher levels of perceived stress were associated with a
more severe impact of menopausal symptoms. Regarding gastrointestinal health,
researchers found that women with constipation experienced more severe
menopause symptoms. Researchers noted that stool consistency and frequency of
bowel movements may relate to a person’s gut microbiota.
Non-study author Dr. Kecia
Gaither, MPH, MS, MBA,FACOG, a double board certified in OB/GYN and
Maternal Fetal Medicine, and Director of Perinatal Services/Maternal Fetal
Medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln in the Bronx commented with her
thoughts on the study to Medical News Today:
“Scientists are coming to
recognize that microbiomes play important roles in health; vaginal microbiomes
are important to neonatal health, and likewise gut microbiomes impact adult
health. The gut is impacted by a multitude of factors– food consumed,
medications taken, and the hormonal milieu– among other intrinsic and extrinsic
influences. Gut microbiomes and its effect on health is a novel and burgeoning
arena for research– which needs further information. The study proposed a great
foundation on which to explore the relationship between hormonal fluctuations
impacting the gut microbiome–and the physiologic and metabolic bodily changes
that result from such.”
Study limitations and continued research
This study does have some limitations to its findings.
First, it does rely on participant self-reporting, which doesn’t always result
in accurate measurement. It also cannot establish a causal relationship between
the factors that the researchers examined. Participants also completed the
survey online, which means all participants had online access.
Researchers acknowledge the possibility of sample bias
due to factors like conducting their survey in an urban area and most participants
having higher education. This makes it hard to generalize the study’s results.
Researchers also note that culture and attitude toward menopause can impact
menopausal symptoms. So, future studies can include more participants from more
diverse backgrounds.
This current study only included ethnically Lithuanian
women, limiting the generalization of the results. Researchers note that
further research can examine the relationship between the studied factors and
include long-term follow-up.
Overall, the study points to the complexity of factors
related to menopause symptoms. Dr. Gaither was optimistic that future research
into the gut microbiome could uncover a way to
improve menopause symptoms.
Dr. Gaither explained that it might be helpful “to
narrow the field to see if there was a similarity of a specific protein or gene
sequence that despite exogenous factors like environment, diet, ethnicity,
co-morbidities was impacted by menopausal hormonal decline — and as such
produced a host of clinical symptomatology.”
“To find such within analyzing the gut microbiome,
perhaps treatment of menopausal symptoms might reflect the need for
supplementation of that particular deficient protein– ultimately working to
reverse symptoms associated with menopause,” Dr. Gaither added. “Further
research along this line is needed– a breakthrough of sorts would change the
lives and well-being of women –globally– who are impacted by symptoms of
menopause.”
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