The relationship between social support, stressful events, and menopause symptoms

Abstract

Many women going through the menopausal transition experience vasomotor symptoms (VMS), and research has shown that there is a large amount of variation in their frequency and severity. Many lifestyle factors have been found to co-vary with VMS, including the level of social support received by the woman, and how stressed she is. Stress is well documented to worsen menopause symptoms, and there is some evidence that support eases them; however, there is little research into whether support is an effective buffer against the negative effects of stress on VMS. Using nine years of data from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (n = 2718), we use multilevel Poisson regression with random effects to test: 1) if more social support is associated with decreased VMS frequency, 2) if increased life stress worsens VMS, and 3) if support acts as a buffer against stress. After adjusting for age, marital status, smoking, self-perceived overall health, ethnicity, and menopausal status, we find that stress increases the frequency of VMS. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find strong evidence that emotional support led to lower VMS frequency, or that support buffers against the effects of stress. Experience of a stressful event, but not amount of social support, was included in the best fitting model; with the degree to which the woman was upset by the life stressor having the largest effect on menopause symptoms. Here, women who said they were currently upset by a stressful event experienced 21% more VMS than women who had experienced no life stressor. This research highlights that social factors may impact the menopausal transition.

Menstruation and menopause in autistic adults: Periods of importance?

“…Social and societal explanations for the experience of complaints typically associated with menopause in autistic women should also be considered. A lower impact of the menopausal transition is associated with stronger social support during stressful life events (Arnot et al, 2021), greater physical fitness, better coping strategies, and better sleep quality (Duffy et al, 2013). All these factors are generally rated lower in those with an ASC (Bishop-Fitzpatrick & Rubenstein, 2019;Ee et al, 2019;Hirvikoski & Blomqvist, 2015;Maxwell-Horn & Malow, 2017), suggesting that these could also impact the experience of menopause in autistic individuals.…”

Is cognitive behaviour therapy an effective option for women who have troublesome menopausal symptoms?

“…Having persistent and/or troublesome VMS and sleep problems can make women feel stressed and irritable, which in turn can exacerbate menopausal symptoms. An estimated 9–10% of women report an increase in psychological symptoms, including depressed mood and/or anxiety, during the menopause transition (Almeida et al, 2016 ; Mishra & Kuh, 2012 ), which tends to be relatively transient, and is associated with troublesome VMS, current stress, low self‐esteem, and hormone fluctuations (Arnot, Emmott, & Mace, 2021 ; Campbell, Dennerstein, Finch, & Szoeke, 2017 ; Willi, Süss, Grub, & Ehlert, 2021 ). Longer duration of VMS has been linked with higher levels of perceived stress (Avis et al, 2015 ); acute psychological stress has been shown to provoke VMS (Swartzman, Edelberg, & Kemmann, 1990 ); there is also some evidence of altered physiological stress responsivity in women with VMS (Nathan et al, 2020 ).…”

The Association of Menopausal Symptoms and Social Support Among Saudi Women at Primary Health Care Centers in Taif, Saudi Arabia

“…One of the factors that have recently been a matter of concern is the 1 2 perceived social support among females. Research highlights that women need social support to cope and adapt to the menopausal symptoms in this stressful period of their life, and this may help control their symptoms [11,12]. The severity of symptoms may have a negative impact on daily activity and quality of life.…”