Diabetes prevention strategies and methods are not influenced by natural menopause, although surgical menopause does show changes in the response of lifestyle changes in them. Read on to know more.

   Team@CMHF

Menopause does not adversely affect diabetes risk or strategies to prevent diabetes in women who already have an increased risk for the disease, investigators reported

The present report has clinical and public health relevance, showing that natural menopause does not modify the impact of diabetes prevention interventions among women at high risk for diabetes,” Catherine Kim, MD, MPH, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and coauthors wrote in conclusion.

“Bilateral oophorectomy may have different effects on response to lifestyle interventions than natural menopause, but the role of hormone therapy needs to be assessed,” they added.

In the current study, the authors noted that some evidence suggests that menopause might accelerate progression of glucose intolerance. Whether menopause affects diabetes risk in women at high risk for the condition had remained unclear.
Data from the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) afforded an opportunity to examine more closely the relationship between menopause and diabetes.

The analysis included 1,237 women ages 40 to 65, of whom 708 were premenopausal, 328 had undergone natural menopause, and 201 were surgically postmenopausal (bilateral oophorectomy). Follow-up averaged 3.2 years.

None of the differences between pre- and postmenopausal women achieved statistical significance in the unadjusted analysis or after adjustment for age, race/ethnicity, family history of diabetes, history of gestational diabetes, waist circumference, fasting insulin, and corrected insulin response

Acknowledging limitations of the study, Kim and coauthors pointed out that bilateral oophorectomy was self-reported and that study participants were queried only at baseline about menopausal status. The investigators could not account for women who might have transitioned from pre- to postmenopausal status during the three years of follow-up.

Use of oral contraceptives to manage perimenopausal symptoms might have affected progression to diabetes in premenopausal women, but only 6% of women reported OC use.

Ref: http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Diabetes/27798