Menopause timing, type not linked to diabetes risk

Neither the timing nor type of menopause appears to influence the risk of diabetes, according to a study.

Researchers used data from the UK Biobank and identified 146,764 women (mean age 60 years, 22 percent had obesity, 29 percent had a university education) for inclusion in the analysis.

Age at menopause was categorized as normal (occurring after 45 years of age), early (occurring within 40–45 years of age), and premature (occurring before 40 years of age). Menopause types were natural and surgical. The main outcome was a diagnosis of type 1 or 2 diabetes during the follow-up.

Of the women, 81.9 percent had normal menopause, 14.3 percent had early menopause, and 3.8 percent had premature menopause. There were 5.5 percent of women who underwent bilateral oophorectomy, resulting in surgical menopause.

Over a mean follow-up of 14.5 years, 6,598 women received a diagnosis of diabetes. The cumulative incidence rate of diabetes was 3.1 cases per 1,000 woman-years.

The incidence rate of diabetes was highest in the premature menopause group, followed by the early and normal menopause groups (5.13, 3.61, and 2.9 cases per 1,000 woman-years, respectively). Women with surgical menopause also had a higher incidence of diabetes than those who had natural menopause (4.59 and 2.99 cases per 1,000 woman-years, respectively).

However, multivariate analysis showed that the risk of diabetes was not significantly associated with the timing (premature vs normal: hazard ratio [HR], 0.971, p=0.555; early vs normal: HR, 1.005, p=0.882) or type (surgical vs natural: HR, 1.012, p=0.816) of menopause.