Does Obesity Aggravate Climacteric Symptoms in Postmenopausal Women?

The study sample was composed of 109 postmenopausal women with a mean age of 57 ± 8 years, mean body mass index (BMI) of 30 ± 6 kg/m², and 8 ± 8 years after menopause. For the assessment of the climacteric symptoms, the Blatt-Kupperman Index (BKI), the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS), and the Cervantes Scale (CS) were used. Data analysis was performed through the Chi-squared test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the Bonferroni post hoc test, and multiple linear regression. The level of significance adopted was of p < 0.05. The statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, United States) software, version 26.0.

Results

The multiple linear regression showed a positive association (p<0.01) between BMI values and menopause symptoms when adjusted for age and time after menopause in the 3 questionnaires used (BKI: B = 0.432; CS: B = 304; and MRS: B = 302). Regarding symptom scores, the obese women had higher mean scores (p<0.05) when compared to eutrophic women (BKI = 28 ± 10 and 20 ± 10; and MRS = 20 ± 10 and 13±7, respectively). In the Chi-squared analysis, 28% of obese women had severe symptoms and 46% had moderate symptoms, while only 1% and 46% of eutrophic women had these same symptoms.

Conclusion

There is an association between BMI and climacteric symptoms, and overweight or obese women have more intense and moderate symptoms than eutrophic women.

Keywords
climacteric symptoms; obesity; overweight; menopause

Clinical characteristics	Eutrophic (n =24)	Overweight (n =39)	Obese (n=46)
Age (years)	52 ±7	55±9	57 ±5
Time after menopause (years)	4±7	6±8	5±8
Body mass (kg)	58±6	69 ±5	90±12
Body Mass Index (kg/m²)	22±1	27±1	34 ±4
Score on the questionnaires
Blatt-Kupperman Index	20± 10*	24±8	28±10
Cervantes Scale	44 ±25	57 ±23	58±25
Menopause Rating Scale	13 ±7*	18±7	20±10

	Eutrophic (n =24)		Overweight (n =39)		Obese (n =46)		p
	n	%	n	%	n	%	p
Blatt-Kupperman Index
Mild	12	50	10	26	12	26	< 0.01*
Moderate	11	46	27	69	21	46
Severe	1	4	2	5	13	28
Menopause Rating Scale
Asymptomatic + mild	7	29	3	8	6	13	0.11
Moderate	7	29	13	33	10	22
Severe	10	42	23	59	30	65

	Unstandardized coefficients		Standardized coefficients	t	Siginificance
	B	Standard error	Beta	t	Siginificance
(Constant)	19.545	9.045		2.161	0.033
Body Mass Index	0.723	0.150	0.432	4.817	0.000
Age	-0.310	0.170	-0.237	-1.829	0.070
Time after menopause	0.199	0.159	0.160	1.250	0.214

	Unstandardized coefficients		Standardized coefficients	t	Siginificance
	B	Standard error	Beta	t	Siginificance
(Constant)	68.949	23.614		2.920	0.004
Body Mass Index	1.271	0.392	0.304	3.243	0.002
Age	-0.999	0.443	-0.305	-2.255	0.026
Time after menopause	0.613	0.415	0.197	1.478	0.142

	Unstandardized coefficients		Standardized coefficients	t	Siginificance
	B	Standard error	Beta	t	Siginificance
(Constant)	8.838	8.176		1.081	0.282
Body Mass Index	0.432	0.136	0.302	3.184	0.002
Age	-0.075	0.153	-0.067	-0.486	0.628
Time after menopause	0.070	0.144	0.066	0.489	0.626

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