Factors associated with early menopause in Bangladesh

Abstract

Background. Early menopause is a risk factor for several health-related problems of women. No single study was available in literature to determine the associated factors for early menopause in Bangladesh. Objectives. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with early menopause in Bangladesh. Material and methods. Data was extracted from the nationally representative Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2014. This data was collected from 17,863 married Bangladeshi women throughout the entire country using two-stage stratified cluster sampling. The BDHS 2014 report showed that women aged 30-49 years are estimated to be menopausal. Considering this estimation, we excluded women whose age was less than 30 years. Women whose menstrual periods had stopped because of pregnancy and postpartum amenorrhea, as well as those with some incomplete information and missing samples, were excluded from data. Consequently, 8,885 women were considered for this study. The chi-square test was used for bivariate analysis, and logistic regression was used as multivariate analysis. Results. The prevalence of early menopause in Bangladesh was 10.80%. The binary multivariate logistic regression model demonstrated that women with no education were more likely to experience early menopause compared to women of higher education [AOR = 3.39, 95% CI: 2.22-5.20, p < 0.001]. A lower rate of early menopause was especially found among women who were living in the Sylhet division that were currently married and currently using contraceptive methods. Conclusions. The stepwise binary logistic regression model exhibited that most of the significant predictors were modifiable factors for early menopause. Authorities should provide basic education on early menopause to less educated women.

Epidemiologic Risk Factors for Variation in Age at Natural Menopause: Shreds of Evidence from a Tribal Community in North-East India

“…A pan Indian study discovered that (Pallikadavath et al, 2016) residential and literacy status, duration of breast feeding of child, and husband’s awareness about the menopausal status of spouse were significant predictors of some of the menopausal symptoms. This study is in the same line with the results by Ali et al (2020) who reported that the Bangladeshi women who were not using any contraceptive method had a 3.62-times higher chance of early menopause than who were using a contraceptive method. In accordance with the idea that OCPs postpone oocyte depletion, several studies have found that women who took OCPs experience natural menopause at a later age (Zsakai et al, 2015; Lujan-Barroso et al, 2018).…”

Prevalence of premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) and its relationship with female reproductive factors in Iranian women: a cross-sectional study from the Persian (Shahedieh) cohort data

“…The age at which menopause begins did not significantly correlate with marital status in a research done in Greece [ 31 ]. According to a different research, divorced and bereaved women are more likely to have early menopause [ 27 , 32 ]. Ovulation ceases during pregnancy, therefore the more births and pregnancies a woman has, the more eggs she retains, which helps prevent early menopause in women.…”

Factors Associated With Age at Menopause: A Cross-Sectional Study in Khulna District, Bangladesh

“…All these variables were considered for the bivariate analysis, and further for the regression analysis. The selected variables were chosen for the current study as these were found to be significantly associated with menopausal age in previous studies (Ali et al, 2020;Awal et al, 2019;Ceylan & Özerdoğan, 2015;Li et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2018).…”

“…Of the genetic factors, mother's age at menopause has been reported to have an influence on women's early or late menopause (Ceylan & Özerdoğan, 2015). Socioeconomic factors including religion, residence, age at marriage, BMI (Awal et al, 2019), education (Ali et al, 2020;Awal et al, 2019), occupation (Ahuja, 2016), and lower socioeconomic status (Canavez et al, 2011;Li et al, 2012) in general has been reported as the significant determinants of age at menopause in some previous studies. Women with lower education (Li et al, 2012;Pérez-Alcalá et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2018), separated, divorced and widowed (Ahmed et al, 2016), and underweight (Szegda et al, 2017;Tao et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2018) are more likely to experience early menopause.…”

“…Previous studies have shown that among reproductive factors, age at menarche, regularity of menstrual cycle, use of oral contraceptives, and number of pregnancies were the significant determinants of menopausal age (Bjelland et al, 2014;Eum et al, 2014;Sapre & Thakur, 2014). In addition, use of contraceptive pills (Ahuja, 2016;Ali et al, 2020), and earlier menarche (Wang et al, 2018) was also reported to be linked with early menopause. Some believe that an increase in duration of breastfeeding might have prolonged the period of lactating amenorrhea resulting in a probable delay in reaching menopause (Sharma & Mahajan, 2015).…”