Pregnancy After Early Menopause
Posted by on October 16, 2013 - 10:06am

When a woman goes through menopause before age 40, it’s considered early menopause. When this occurs naturally, due to genetics or chromosome defects, it is known as primary ovarian insufficiency and happens to about 1 in 100 women. Early menopause may also result from medical treatments, like chemotherapy or radiation. Researchers from the United States and Japan have recently reported on a new technique in which the ovaries of women who went through early menopause were successfully “reawakened.”

This study included 27 women around age 30 who were infertile with primary ovarian insufficiency. Prior to menopause, eggs in the ovaries begin as follicles and remain that way until some of them mature each month. After menopause, some follicles may remain, but in a dormant state. The researchers’ goal was to activate the remaining follicles in the ovaries of women with primary ovarian insufficiency. To “awaken” the follicles, researchers followed several steps. First, they removed the ovaries and cut them into pieces. Next, they introduced a chemical to spur egg development and replaced the ovary fragments at the top of the fallopian tubes. Finally, the women in the study underwent hormone therapy.

In 8 of the 27 women, the sleeping follicles began to develop and form eggs. At this point, the researchers took eggs for in vitro fertilization (IVF). Following this treatment, one woman successfully had a baby, and another is pregnant.

While this study did not yield high success rates, it is gathering significant traction in the medical world. With additional study and refinement, success rates may increase or lead researchers towards other techniques that will offer hope for women who experience early menopause and want a child.

Source: Gallagher, James. "Early Menopause: Baby born after ovaries 'reawakened.'" BBC News. 30 September 2013.

Written by guest blogger Sarah Henning.  To learn more about menopause visit:  www.menopausenu.org

 

 

Estrogen may protect against stroke in younger women
Posted by on October 17, 2011 - 1:03pm

Contrary to popular belief that estrogen is a risk factor for stroke at all ages, researchers found that the sex hormone actually may prevent strokes in premature or early menopausal women. For the research, published in the journal Menopause, Mayo Clinic scientists analyzed seven other studies to determine how premature or early menopause is associated with stroke.

They found that women who had their ovaries removed before age 50 were more likely to suffer a stroke than women who did not have a bilateral oophorectomy before age 50. But hormone therapy seemed to lower the increased stroke risk for the first group of women, suggesting that a lack of estrogen is linked to the greater risk.

In addition, the age of menopause onset was more important to stroke risk than whether menopause was natural or induced, with earlier onset menopause connected to higher stroke risk.

Study author Walter Rocca said scientists must correct the idea that estrogen is always a problem in the brain. While estrogen can be an issue in older women, the hormone may protect younger women from stroke, he said. Women who experience premature (before age 40) or early menopause (before age 45), whether from natural causes or from ovary removal, should consider taking estrogen up to about age 50 to prevent stroke, Rocca said.

Stroke is the third leading cause of death and the top cause of long-term disability in the U.S. In 2006, more than half of deaths due to stroke were in women, according to the CDC.

Click here to read the Mayo Clinic study.

Young Women with Ovarian Insufficiency at Risk for Depression
Posted by on December 8, 2010 - 7:35am

Young women with the menopause-like condition, primary ovarian insufficiency, are much more likely than other women to experience depression at some point during their lives, according to a study from the National Institutes of Health. The finding suggests that all women diagnosed with the condition should be evaluated for depression.

Depression is a serious medical illness affecting the brain which involves more than feeling blue or sad for a few days. Symptoms include persistent feelings of sadness, difficulty sleeping or over sleeping, energy loss, and feelings of worthlessness.

Primary ovarian insufficiency, or POI, results in a menopause-like condition years before normal menopause begins — sometimes as early as the teens or twenties. Women with POI stop producing normal amounts of reproductive hormones, develop hot flashes, and typically become infertile. The study authors evaluated 174 women with POI and found that 67 percent either were currently clinically depressed or had been depressed at least one time in their lives.

The researchers noted that this proportion was more than twice the rate of depression found by a national survey of women in the general population.

"Because of the strong association with depression, our results indicate all women diagnosed with POI should be thoroughly evaluated for depression," said Lawrence M. Nelson, M.D., co-senior author of the study and head of the Integrative and Reproductive Medicine Group at the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). "Simply asking patients if they are depressed is not sufficient. Primary care physicians should evaluate their patients with a diagnostic screening test to determine if treatment or referral to a mental health specialist for further evaluation is needed."

The study's first author was Peter J. Schmidt, M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).   The study appears in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

The study was unable to determine why women with POI are more likely than other women to experience depression. The investigators cited results of a previous study, which had suggested that depression might trigger physical changes that ultimately lead women to develop POI. However, in the current study, more than 73 percent of women with POI first experienced depressive symptoms after developing the irregular menstrual cycles believed to be an indicator of impending POI.

The findings also did not support the hypothesis that most women with POI become depressed after they are told of their diagnosis, when they learn that they will likely be infertile. In the current study, more than 68 percent of patients with POI who had depression had become depressed after the onset of irregular menstrual cycles, but before receiving the diagnosis of POI.

In a previous study, Dr. Schmidt found that women entering natural menopause at an appropriate age are at greater risk of depression late in the menopause transition, when estrogen levels are particularly low.

"Future studies are needed to help determine whether hormonal changes, perhaps combined with a particular genetic makeup, might predispose some women to depression," said Dr. Schmidt.

The authors also noted that studies of women undergoing natural menopause have found that estrogen supplements relieve symptoms of depression in some women. The authors added that it is possible that estrogen supplements might relieve symptoms of depression in women with POI.

NIMH provides information about women and depression in its booklet Women and Depression: Discovering Hope.

Potential to Predict Early Menopause?
Posted by on November 10, 2010 - 9:28am

The first research from the Breakthrough Generations Study could lead to a test to predict a woman's reproductive lifespan.

The findings, published in Human Molecular Genetics, could have considerable impact on women in the United Kingdom (UK) and other western countries, where many start having children at a later age. Early menopause affects one in 20 UK women.

The study from scientists at the University of Exeter Peninsula Medical School and The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), funded by The Wellcome Trust, tested four genes associated with the menopause. They compared 2,000 women from the Breakthrough Generations Study who had experienced early menopause with a matched group of the same number. The four genes each affected risk of early menopause. In combination, they had a larger impact, which goes towards explaining why some women experience early menopause.

The Breakthrough Generations Study is a large and comprehensive study into the causes of breast cancer and a partnership between Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the ICR. The study will follow the 100,000 UK women participants for the next 40 years to unravel the lifestyle, environmental and genetic factors that cause the disease.

Although early menopause is associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer, women who experience early menopause are susceptible to other health problems including osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and a reduction in fertility.

The research could help women determine whether they have a genetic predisposition to early menopause, and therefore predict the time of the end of their reproductive life. They could then make informed family planning decisions on the basis of this knowledge.

Lead scientist Dr Anna Murray, from the University of Exeter Peninsula Medical School, says, "It is estimated that a woman's ability to conceive decreases on average ten years before she starts the menopause. Therefore, those who are destined to have an early menopause and delay childbearing until their 30s are more likely to have problems conceiving.

"These findings are the first stage in developing an easy and relatively inexpensive genetic test which could help the one in 20 UK women who may be affected by early menopause."

Source:   Hum Mol Genet. 2010 Oct 26. [Epub ahead of print]