Earlier menopause transition negatively impacts work life

Key takeaways:

• Earlier menopause led to worse perceived work ability and higher risk for disability retirement.
• At 2 years of follow-up, prematurely menopausal women had more disability and unemployment days vs. controls.

Earlier menopause — by age 46 years — was tied to worse self-perceived work ability, long-term work participation impairment and higher disability retirement risk, according to study data from women in Finland published in Menopause.

“To date, a few studies have shown that menopausal symptoms may be negatively associated with work ability and well-being at work, whereas other studies have reported the need for further research on this subject,” Tiia Saarinen, BM, from the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Oulu University Hospital, Wellbeing Services County of North Ostrobothnia, and the research unit of clinical medicine at the University of Oulu, Finland, and colleagues wrote. “However, most previous studies on menopause and work ability have concentrated on women undergoing menopause within the average range of 45 to 55 years.”

Saarinen and colleagues recruited 2,661 women from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 study’s 46-year follow-up study conducted in 2012. Using self-reported data from the Work Ability Score, with scores of 0 to 7 being poor, researchers evaluated all participants’ self-perceived work ability. Researchers obtained data on participants’ disability days, unemployment days and disability pensions from national registers. Participants were defined as having premature menopause if menopause onset occurred before age 46 years.

Primary outcomes were associations between menopause transition by age 46 years, work ability and working life participation.

Overall, 86.5% of women had premature menopause. Compared with prematurely menopausal women, a greater proportion of menopausal women were smokers (23.1% vs. 16.7%; P = .012). In addition, more prematurely menopausal women had a tertiary educational level compared with menopausal women (31.3% vs. 26%; P = .040).

When adjusting for educational level and smoking status, prematurely menopausal women had higher odds of poor self-perceived work ability (OR = 1.41; 95% CI, 1.06-1.87) compared with women with later menopause onset. During 2-year follow-up, prematurely menopausal women had higher incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for disability (IRR = 1.09; 95% CI, 1.07-1.11) and unemployment days (IRR = 1.16; 95% CI, 1.14-1.18) compared with women with later menopause onset. In addition, compared with women with later menopause onset, prematurely menopausal women had a higher risk for disability retirement (HR = 1.72; 95% CI, 1.02-2.91).

“In working life, employers should consider making working conditions more flexible for women undergoing the menopausal transition to help them manage their symptoms,” the researchers wrote. “In addition, employers should provide these women with increased support; doing so could help minimize their risk of prematurely ending their work careers.”