Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0600142 (hot flushes)
 1,242 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Between February and October 1990, researchers analyzed data on 110 postmenopausal women attending the university women's clinic in Vienna, Austria to determine whether a relationship exists between fertility, body shape, and menopause. Fertility incorporated number of pregnancies and births and age at each birth and induced and spontaneous abortions. They did not find a significant correlation between fertility and age at menopause. Yet there was a slight positive correlation between age at individual pregnancies and age at menopause regardless of whether it was the 1st or last pregnancy. The more pregnancies a woman experienced the larger her body shape became (p.01-.05). Thus multiparous women had more subcutaneous fat. In fact, fat distribution increases sex hormone levels which, along with the changes in hormone levels induced by pregnancy, probably delayed menopause. In addition, fertility was also positively associated with severity of menopause symptoms (p.01-.05). These symptoms included hot flushes, weakness, breast tension, urine loss, mood changes, headache, palpitation, vaginal dryness, sleeplessness, and loss of libido. Even though higher numbers of pregnancies increase estrogen secretion during menopause, many menopausal symptoms should not be very severe in theory since the higher estrogen levels abate severity. Yet the somatic and psychological stress of large family size appears to offset any advantages of higher estrogen levels induced by subcutaneous fat. Obese women face greater psychological stress than slender women since they do not conform to the cultural definition of beauty.
 ...
PMID:Relations between fertility, body shape and menopause in Austrian women. 142 82