Premature menopause can deeply change a woman’s life. It brings not only physical changes but also strong emotional and social effects.
Women with this condition may feel the sudden loss of fertility and the effects of low estrogen. But not everyone feels the same level of distress.
A new study looked into why some women are more affected than others. The findings were published in the journal Menopause.
Premature menopause, also called premature or primary ovarian insufficiency (POI), happens when the ovaries stop working normally before age 40. Women with POI are more likely to have depression and anxiety. In fact, studies show they are more than three times as likely to have depression and nearly five times as likely to suffer from anxiety.
This is not surprising since these women deal with infertility, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, weaker bones, and a higher risk of heart disease. For many, infertility leads to changed life plans, a feeling of lost control, stigma, and stress in social roles.
Still, not every woman with POI becomes depressed. This new study included nearly 350 women with POI to find out what makes the difference. One key finding was that almost 30% of them had symptoms of depression.
Researchers also found that women were more likely to be depressed if they were diagnosed at a younger age, had strong menopause symptoms, felt grief about fertility loss, or lacked emotional support. Surprisingly, taking hormone therapy (estrogen with progestogen) didn’t seem to reduce the risk of depression.
This shows how important emotional and social support is. Interestingly, women with a known genetic cause for their POI were less likely to have depression. Also, even though strong menopause symptoms were linked with depression, hot flashes—especially night sweats—did not seem to play a major role.
This is the first large study to look at what causes depression in women with POI. It shows that care for these women needs to focus not just on their physical symptoms but also on their mental health.
Hormone therapy can help with physical issues, but it’s not a cure for mood problems. Screening for depression and offering mental health support should be part of every treatment plan for women with POI.
If you care about mental health, please read studies about Middle-aged women with no kids may have this mental issue and findings of scientists find a cause of mental illnesses induced by childhood abuse.
For more about mental health, please read studies about Cannabis use disorder linked to increased risk of these mental diseases and findings of Some mental health drugs can cause rapid weight gain.
The study is published in Menopause.
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