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. 2015 Nov 15:187:127-35.
doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2015.08.047. Epub 2015 Aug 28.

Menarche age, menopause age and other reproductive factors in association with post-menopausal onset depression: Results from Health Examinees Study (HEXA)

Sun Jae Jung  1 , Aesun Shin  2 , Daehee Kang  3
Affiliations
Free article

Menarche age, menopause age and other reproductive factors in association with post-menopausal onset depression: Results from Health Examinees Study (HEXA)

Sun Jae Jung et al. J Affect Disord. .
Free article

Abstract

Background: Although there are plausible mechanisms of female hormones in depression, epidemiological evidence has shown conflicting results.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the associations between female hormonal events and post-menopausal depression and further investigate the relative association between the age of menarche, the age of menopause and depression.

Methods: Among 111,589 women who took part in the Health Examinees (HEXA) Study, a total of 60,114 postmenopausal participants were included in the final analysis. Each participant provided information on depression and questions related to reproductive history. The outcome variable was self-reported by the history of depression diagnosed by physicians and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) score. With the multivariate logistic regression, odds ratios were calculated. Possible interactions between depression prevalence and the ages of menarche and menopause were assessed.

Results: A total of 2.2% (1342/60,114) women were diagnosed with depression after menopause, and 5.9% (500/8472) showed depressive symptoms. As the age of menopause and duration of reproductive years increased, the odds ratio of depression decreased (P-trend <0.001). As the age of menarche increased, the likelihood of physician-diagnosed depression also increased (P-trend 0.048). As the number of both spontaneous and induced abortions increased, the odds ratio of depression increased (P-trend <0.001).

Limitation: it is possible that women show inaccuracies in recalling their hormonal events and reporting other past mental disorders as depression.

Conclusion: Both the ages of the initiation and the termination of menstruation were associated with the increased odds ratio of post-menopausal depression. However, the age of menopause seems to be more important.

Keywords: Abortion; Depression; Hormonal life event; Menarche; Menopause.

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