Top recent menopause news for World Menopause Month

October is World Menopause Month. Healio and Endocrine Today have compiled a list of the most read recent news about menopause.

Readers were most interested in potential new therapies for menopause symptoms, comorbidities affected by menopause, and reliability of hormone tests.

Read more below:

Phthalates may contribute to sleep disruption in menopause

“It may be important to consider a woman’s exposure to environmental chemicals as a potential source contributing to a woman’s menopausal symptoms,” Katherine Hatcher, PhD, and Megan Mahoney, PhD, told Healio. “This may lead to changes in treatment, such as educating women on how to reduce their exposure to environmental contaminants.” Read more.

Cannabis use ‘common’ approach to treating menopause symptoms

“There is a lot that we do not know about the potential benefits and harms of cannabis use, particularly related to menopause and aging, but existing evidence raises concerns about its impact on cognition, cardiovascular health and mental health,” Carolyn J. Gibson, PhD, MPH, told Healio. “Not asking may mean a missed opportunity to discuss risks and understand potential benefits.” Read more.

Brain effects of menopausal HT differ for pill, patch delivery

“The thrombogenic properties of estrogens, particularly the oral conjugated equine estrogen formulation, may be responsible for the accelerated increases in the white matter hyperintensities in women who were on menopausal HT,” Kejal Kantarci, MD, MS, said. Read more.

Nearly 40% of postmenopausal women may have depressive symptoms

“Women and the clinicians who care for them need to be aware that the menopause transition is a period of vulnerability in terms of mood,” Stephanie S. Faubion, MD, MBA, FACP, NCMP, IF, said. Read more.

‘Evidence of synergy’: Short sleep, hot flashes associated with CV risk in menopause

“[Cardiovascular] events are relatively rare premenopause, but these events accelerate starting with peri- and postmenopause to ultimately match that of men,” Rebecca Thurston, PhD, told Healio. “The menopause can be seen as a time of accelerated CVD risk.” Read more.

HT reduces inflammation biomarkers for women in early menopause

“Daily intake of hormone therapy reduced generalized inflammation indicated by reduction of multiple biomarkers of inflammation in women within 6 years of menopause,” Roksana Karim, PhD, MBBS, told Healio. “Anti-inflammatory effect of HT could be a potential mechanism of anti-atherosclerotic benefit from HT in healthy postmenopausal women within 6 years of menopause.” Read more.

CVD, stroke risks increase with number of menopause symptoms

“More moderate and severe menopausal symptoms are associated with increased cardiovascular disease and stroke,” Matthew Nudy, MD, told Healio. “These patients may be more likely to seek a physician for treatment, and this may be an ideal time to assess cardiovascular disease risk.” Read more.

Novel KNDy receptor drugs may be the future of treating menopausal vasomotor symptoms

“It’s really important that we look towards individualizing treatments for our patients, and we need to look at how they prioritize their symptoms,” Susan D. Reed, MD, MPH, told Healio. Read more.

‘Noise’ with mass spectrometry warrants caution when measuring hormones during menopause

“In reproductive-aged women, estradiol immunoassay is fine, but in the menopausal women, it is not reliable,” Richard J. Auchus, MD, PhD, told Healio. Read more.

Fetal estrogens hold promise for menopausal symptom treatment

“Unfortunately, there is no such thing as the ‘perfect’ estrogen that has all of the favorable properties we want and none of the negatives,” Hugh S. Taylor, MD, told Healio. “It probably does not exist, but there is an opportunity for us to design better estrogens or take advantage of other naturally occurring estrogens that may come closer to that goal of the ideal estrogen.” Read more.