All women enter menopause, but it can be very variable when you experience the first symptoms starting.
It has long been known that various lifestyle factors can influence when a woman enters menopause. Among other things, smoking can cause the menopause to start as much as one or two years earlier, several studies show.
Now researchers at OsloMet have looked at whether alcohol can also play a role.
– I think the findings were surprising, says researcher Julie Røgler Langås at OsloMet.
RESEARCH GAP: Scholarship holder Julie Røgler Langås thinks that too little research has been done on alcohol and menopause, and therefore started her own study. Photo: Sonja Balci / OsloMet
Six months difference
In Norway, the average age for menopause, the last period, is approximately 53 years. It is also common for this to happen from when the woman is 40 to 60 years old.
Both early and late menopause can have consequences for women’s health, and several research studies have therefore been carried out on what can cause this.
– If you have early menopause, it can increase the risk of childlessness, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, if you have a late menopause, it can increase the risk of breast cancer, says Røgler Langås.
Together with other researchers at OsloMet, the Women’s Clinic at Ahus and the Cancer Register, she has researched how alcohol intake affects menopause.
The study is published in The International Journal of Epidemiology and has used data from a questionnaire that has been answered by 280,000 women aged 50 to 69.
The women participated in the Mammography program in the years 2006 to 2015 and have reported their average consumption of alcohol and when they had their last period.
TREATMENT: More and more women are receiving hormone therapy to alleviate the symptoms of menopause. Photo: Alf Simensen / TV 2
The findings surprised the researchers.
– For women who drank alcohol, menopause occurred approximately six months later than for those who did not drink alcohol, says Røgler Langås.
Has other health consequences
Also international studies have pointed out that menopause occurs slightly later among women who drink alcohol than among those who do not drink alcohol.
But although in the Norwegian study there was a clear difference between those who drank and those who did not, Røgler Langås is unsure of what significance this actually has.
– We saw that the degree of alcohol intake had minimal significance for when menopause occurred, so it is difficult to establish whether alcohol intake actually has an effect, says Røgler Langås.
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The study therefore did not show that the more one drank, the later the woman lost her period.
– We therefore believe that alcohol has little effect on ovarian function, but that characteristics of women who do not drink alcohol may help to explain why menopause occurs earlier among them, says Røgler Langås.
At the same time, she emphasizes that although alcohol does not seem to have a particular effect on the age of menopause, it has other health consequences.
There are, for example, clear connections between high alcohol intake and mental disorders, several types of cancer and cardiovascular disease, says Røgler Langås.
Calls for more research
Norwegian women today reach menopause much later than in the past.
In an earlier study of over 300,000 women born between 1936 and 1964, the research group found that the menopause age in Norway increased by a full three years.
– We believe that this may be related to changes in lifestyle and improved living conditions in the population, says Røgler Langås.
At the same time, she calls for more research into menopause. She herself is currently working on two new studies that examine how other lifestyle factors affect the timing of menopause.
– There is a lot we still don’t know about women’s health, so we need more knowledge to be able to give good advice and help to women, says Røgler Langås.