Association of menopausal symptoms with obesity in Slovak women

A lot of midlife women experience a great deal of menopausal symptoms. Their frequency within a given population may vary and depend on several factors such as age, menopausal status, health factors, including obesity. This study aims to investigate the incidence of menopausal symptoms among obese and non-obese midlife women, and to evaluate contribution of obesity as predisposing factor for menopausal symptoms to their manifestation. The studied cohort consisted of 297 women ranging from 39 to 59 years of age. Among them there were 63 women with obesity (body mass index, BMI ≥ 30.0 kg/m2) and of 39 women with abdominal obesity (waist to hip ratio, WHR>0.89). Women were recruited from the western and middle parts of Slovakia. All participants completed a menopause-specific questionnaire. Anthropometric measurements were taken using the standard anthropometric techniques. All statistical computations were performed by the SPSS 17.0 software programme (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Stepwise logistic regression analysis demonstrated that increase in facial hair was influenced by age (p<0.001) and obesity (p=0.015). Low backache was influenced by WHR (p=0.031), obesity (p=0.008) and cardiovascular disease (p=0.024). The significant impact of BMI was recorded on the involuntary urination (p=0.002). The menopausal symptom „more clumsy then usual“ was influenced by marital status (p=0.044), hypertension (p=0.021) and the presence of cardiovascular disease (p=0.023). We investigated the effect of menopausal status (p=0.010) and abdominal obesity (p=0.035) on the loss of sexual interest. Herein we present evidence that obesity could be involved in menopausal symptomatology among Slovak midlife women. We demonstrate that obese women have a higher susceptibility to increase in facial hair and backache, and women with abdominal obesity to loss of sexual interest.