New Studies Reveal Menopause in Indian Women Is Uniquely Different
A new study published recently in the Journal of Midlife Health conducted by Indian Menopause Society at their respective clinics, looked at unique features of menopause in Indian women.
Five Indian regions were identified as North (Agra, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Jammu, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Faridabad, and New Delhi); South (Bengaluru, Calicut, Chennai, Hyderabad); East (Guwahati and Kolkata); West (Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Nagpur, Pune), and Center (Bhopal, Indore, and Raipur).
Average age of menopause of an Indian woman is 46.2 years which is a full 5 years earlier than your sister Western counter parts (51 years).
That means if you are of Indian descent you should be looking at ways that can impact your long term health and wellness. Generally other studies show that earlier menopause is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. The silver lining is that earlier menopause actually decrease one’s risk of breast cancer.
Like in the Indian science of yoga, there is a mind body connection to actual age of menopause! Unmarried women undergo earlier menopause. In this study menopausal age of unmarried women was 45 ± 6.3 years, it was 46.1 ± 4.9 for married women and 47.9 ± 4.8 years for women in the study who had been widowed.
In the West it would be almost unfathomable that we would have a population to study, of grown women, who are illiterate, but shockingly they were able to look at a group of women who were never taught to read. For those women, that could not read and were not considered educated, they underwent an earlier menopause. Again, a powerful example of mind body connection.
Too low a weight can push women into earlier menopause, and that was confirmed in this study. Although, like the rest of the world we see a trend towards increased overall weight, increased BMI, and increases in waist circumference with both increased age and transition to menopause.
The study was very extensive, and like all data, has to be applied to your unique health and genetics, come in to Women’s Health Practice to discuss.
