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Increased insulin lowered risk of natural menopause
HbA1c level was not associated with menopause risk, but increased insulin dosage did correlate to a lower menopause risk, according to recently published study results.
Researchers looked at 657 baseline premenopausal women in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT), a randomized controlled trial of intensive diabetes treatment, and the observational follow-up to that study, the Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC) Study.
“Using data from the DCCT/EDIC cohort, a well-characterized cohort of women with type 1 diabetes, we found that former treatment group, glycemic control, and microvascular disease were not associated with age of natural or surgical menopause,” Catherine Kim, MD, MPH, of the departments of medicine and obstetrics & gynecology at the University of Michigan. “We did find that higher insulin dosages over time, before and after adjustment for body weight, were associated with a lower risk of natural menopause. … These results are reassuring in that increasing insulin dosages do not appear to have an adverse association with age at menopause.”
The data showed that after an average 28 years of follow-up, 240 (38%) of the women experienced natural menopause and 115 (18%) underwent surgical menopause. The ages for the intensive and conventional treatment groups were similar for both natural and surgical menopause and, after multivariable models, the only factor associated with a change in natural menopause risk was insulin dosage.
Each 10-unit/day increase in insulin dose decreased the risk of natural menopause (HR=0.91, 95% CI, 0.75-0.98). Additionally, each kilogram per meter squared increase in BMI heightened the risk of surgical menopause (HR=1.08; 95% CI, 1-1.16).
Disclosure: The DCCT/EDIC studies were supported by U01 Cooperative Agreement grants and contracts with the Division of Diabetes Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease and through support by the National Eye Institute, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Genetic Clinical Research Centers Program and Clinical Translational Science Center Program. Kim received additional support through R01 DK-083297, but all researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.