Menopause timing affects women's Parkinson's risk

Women who count more years between their first period and menopause have a lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease, new research indicates.

The findings, which will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 61st annual meeting in Seattle in April, suggest that longer exposure to the body's own hormones may help protect brain cells affected by Parkinson's disease, says study author Rachel Saunders-Pullman, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx and Beth Israel Medical Center in New York and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

Parkinson's is a nervous system disorder that occurs when special brain cells that make dopamine, a chemical messenger in the brain, die or become impaired. It leads to trembling and movement problems.

In the study, the researchers analyzed the medical records of 74,000 women who experienced natural menopause and about 7,800 women who went through surgical menopause. Among women with natural menopause, those who had a fertile lifespan of more than 39 years had about a 25-percent lower risk of developing Parkinson's than women with a fertile lifespan of less than 33 years.

Women who had menopause from surgery had almost twice the risk of developing the disease if they had previously taken hormone therapy and stopped than if they had never taken hormone therapy. Taking hormones did not have any effect on natural menopause women.
Author Saunders-Pullman says more research is required to understand why women with four or more pregnancies are at increased risk.

"This study does not support a role for treatment with hormone therapy in preventing Parkinson's, but there are still many unanswered questions," she says.


--By Mary Brophy Marcus, USA TODAY