Adverse childhood experiences do not significantly influence age at natural menopause

Key takeaways:

• Overall, 54% of women reported at least one adverse childhood experience.
• No association with age at natural menopause was seen with any number of adverse childhood experiences.

Stressful life experiences, such as adverse childhood experiences, were not associated with age at natural menopause despite a negative impact of stress on the health of midlife women, researchers reported in Menopause.

“Adverse childhood experiences are an important social determinant of health that could help identify people most at risk of cumulative adversity and an allostatic load of stress that impacts women and their reproductive functioning, including timing of and experience of menopause,” Juliana M. Kling, MD, MPH, MSCP, FACP, IF, professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic Arizona, chair of the division of women’s health internal medicine and the Suzanne Hanson Poole Dean at the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine–Arizona Campus, told Healio.

Kling and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study with 350 postmenopausal women (mean age, 59.2 years; 92.9% white) from the Data Registry on Experiences of Aging, Menopause and Sexuality. All participants had consultations in the Mayo Clinic women’s health clinic between May 2015 and December 2016. Researchers evaluated childhood adversity through the validated Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire, including exposure to psychological, physical and sexual abuse or domestic violence, parental substance use and parental incarcerations. All participants self-reported age at natural menopause.

The average age at natural menopause was 50.9 years, and 54% of women reported at least one adverse childhood experience. Women with a history of one to three adverse childhood experiences were estimated to have a 0.4-year lower age at natural menopause (P = .6), and those with four adverse childhood experiences were estimated to have a 0.8-year lower age at menopause (P = .41) in the univariate analysis, but the differences were not significant.

In the multivariable analysis, researchers estimated that women with a history of one to three adverse childhood experiences had a 0.2-year lower age at natural menopause (P = .75), and those with at least four adverse childhood experiences had a 1.3-year lower age at natural menopause (P = .18) compared with women without adverse childhood experiences. Again, differences were not statistically significant.

“While our small cross-sectional study did not show a significant association between childhood adversity and age at menopause, larger studies with more diverse people are needed to further evaluate these relationships,” Kling said.

For more information:

Juliana M. Kling, MD, MPH, MSCP, FACP, IF, can be reached at kling.juliana@mayo.edu.