Body fat linked to menopause

2007-12-29 09:41

New York - Losing weight, particularly body fat, may help to ease some of the symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes and night sweats, researchers said on Thursday.

Dr Rebecca Thurston and scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania found that women with a higher percentage of body fat are more likely to suffer from the effects of menopause.

It was previously thought that menopause symptoms were less common in heavier women because body fat can convert male hormones into oestrogen. Fatter women would therefore have a reserve source of oestrogen that could shield them from these symptoms.

But there is mounting evidence that heavier women may actually experience more symptoms, Thurston and her team said in a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

They studied 1 776 women who were going through menopause. Nearly 60% of the women in the study reported had symptoms of menopause.

Thurston and her colleagues found that as body fat increased in the women, so did the likelihood that a woman would have hot flashes and night sweats.

They suggested that it is possible that excess fat makes it more difficult for the body to dissipate heat.

Based on the findings, Thurston and her colleagues said weight loss - especially loss of fat - may help women going through menopause to reduce hot flashes and night sweats.

- Reuters