Another research paper based on data from the WLB Survey titled “Perimenopause Meets Life: Observations from the Women Living Better Survey” has been published in Menopause, the peer-reviewed journal of the North American Menopause Society — hooray!
It was published in the December Issue of Menopause. Only the abstract is available, but we provide an overview of the findings below.
Our research question for this paper was:
What aspects of midlife are associated with more bothersome symptoms on the path to menopause*?
* menopause = the final day of the final menstrual period
What we mean by “aspects of midlife”
Personal Characteristics
- Age
- Education
- Paying for basic needs
Reproductive aging stage – We looked at two stages; the “late reproductive stage” when periods are still coming monthly but there begin to be subtle changes in the length of cycles, days of flow, or amount of flow and the “menopausal transition” when periods are “skipped” or cycle lengths vary by a week or more).
Anticipated age of menopause-related changes – We asked: when you were age 30, when did you anticipate menopause-related changes would start?
Health behaviors (smoking, alcohol usage)
Roles (being a…)
- Caregiver for children, parents, or another family member
- Partner or spouse
- Employer/ee for pay (either full or part-time)
Stressors
- Overall self-rating of stress level
- Health stress
- Financial stress
- Stress from being over committed
- Stress associated with roles and relationships (work/job, spouse/partner, family relationships, other relationships)
Satisfaction with the mix of activities in one’s life (paid and unpaid)
What we mean by “bothersome symptoms”
We looked at participants’ reports of these aspects of their lives and which were associated with the 5 most bothersome symptom groups.
Symptom Groups
- Anxiety/Vigilance
- Pain/Fatigue
- Brain Fog
- Volatile Moods
- Vasomotor Symptoms/Sleep Onset
These are the symptoms that were included in each group.
We used a 2-stage analytical model that combined the “aspects of midlife” with “symptom bother” to get our results.
What we found
Vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes and night sweats) were not the most bothersome symptom group.
- Brain Fog was the most bothersome, then Volatile Mood, Pain/ Fatigue, then Vasomotor (i.e. hot flashes, night sweats)/Sleep onset, and then the Anxiety/Vigilance symptoms.
There are connections between several aspects of midlife and greater symptom bother.
***Keep in mind these are bi-directional associations, we cannot say one causes the other.
Examples:
- More bothersome hot flashes/night sweats/sleep onset symptoms <-> greater work-related stress and greater health-related stress.
- More bothersome brain fog symptoms <-> lower satisfaction with life roles, greater health-related stress and greater overcommitment stress.
- More bothersome pain/fatigue and <-> less education, greater difficulty paying for basics, more health-related stress, and more stress from other relationships (not spousal or family).
- More bothersome volatile mood symptoms <-> health-related, stress, partner relationship stress, and stress from other relationships
- More bothersome anxiety/vigilance symptom <-> greater work stress, greater health stress, and lower reported satisfaction with life roles.
What this means for those on the path to menopause
- This verifies that midlife stress comes from our many roles and relationships — no big surprise here! and, these sources of stress can be associated with greater symptom bother.
- A first step is to identify sources of stress and recognize which can be modified and which can’t. Reducing stress may reduce bother associated with perimenopause symptoms.
- We also found that being more satisfied with life roles and activities — both paid and unpaid — was associated with feeling less stressed and less bothered by some midlife symptoms.
These findings are why we titled this paper: Perimenopause Meets Life. The hormonal fluctuations that occur and the mental and physical changes they cause are inextricably tied to the context of our lives. Managing the stress that we can make this sometimes bumpy transition less so.
Note: This is the first of two papers looking at bothersome symptoms during perimenopause. The 2nd paper looks at the effects of bothersome symptoms and how they interfere with aspects of our lives. You can find that here.
