ArticleBMJ global health2023
Secular trends in premature and early menopause in low-income and middle-income countries.
Article in BMJ global health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Brazilian Guideline on Menopausal Cardiovascular Health - 2024.Arquivos brasileiros de cardiologia · 2024Guideline
- Prevalence and determinants of premature or early menopause: a pooled analysis of 716 648 women from 44 low- and middle-income countries.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- LDCT screening for lung cancer in East Asian never-smokers: balancing benefits and overdiagnosis-related harms.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2026Review
- A perspective on economic barriers and disparities in access to hormone replacement therapy in LMICs (MARIE-WP2b).Scientific reports · 2026Article
- A cross-sectional study of environmental quality and the timing of menarche and menopause in India using national survey and environmental monitoring datasets.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Review
- The relationship between rural residence and cervical cancer screening in three sub-Saharan countries with different national screening policies.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Evolution of the Human Life Cycle, Revisited.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- Nonlinear Association Between Oxidative Balance Score and Premature Menopause: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of NHANES 2007-2018 Data.International journal of women's health · 2025Article
- Association of social determinants of health and age at menopause: NHANES 1999-2018 observational study.Human reproduction open · 2025Article
- Prevalence of hypothyroidism among postmenopausal women in an urbanised village of northern India: A cross-sectional study.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2024Article
- Rising premature menopause and variations by education level in India.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Aromatase Inhibitors and Plasma Lipid Changes in Postmenopausal Women with Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Brazilian Guideline on Menopausal Cardiovascular Health - 2024.Revista brasileira de ginecologia e obstetricia : revista da Federacao Brasileira das Sociedades de Ginecologia e Obstetricia · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWhile secular trends in high-income countries show an increase in the mean age at menopause, it is unclear if there is a similar pattern in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), where women's exposure to biological, environmental and lifestyle determinants of menopause may differ. Premature (before age 40 years) and early (ages 40-44 years) menopause could have negative repercussions on later life health outcomes which in ageing societies could mean further stress on low-resource health systems. An evaluation of such trends in LMICs has been hampered by the suitability, quality and comparability of data from these countries.
methodsUsing 302 standardised household surveys from 1986 to 2019, we estimate trends and CIs using bootstrapping in the prevalence of premature and early menopause in 76 LMICs. We also developed a summary measure of age at menopause for women who experience menopause before the age of 50 years based on demographic estimation methods that can be used to measure menopausal status in surveys with truncated data.
resultsTrends indicate an increasing prevalence of early and premature menopause in LMICs, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa and South/Southeast Asia. These regions also see a suggested decline of the mean age at menopause with greater variation across continents.
conclusionsThis study enables the analysis of menopause timing by exploiting data generally used for the study of fertility by methodologically allowing the use of truncated data. Findings show a clear increase in prevalence of premature and early menopause in the regions with the highest fertility with possible consequences for later life health. They also show a different trend compared with high-income regions, confirming a lack of generalisability and the importance of accounting for nutritional and health transitions at the local level. This study calls for further data and research on menopause on a global scale.
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