Women with Premature Menopause may have Lower All-Cause Mortality compared to Men: Study

The results revealed that women with premature menopause had a significantly lower risk of all-cause mortality when compared to men. The women who faced menopause before the age of 35 had an adjusted HR of 0.65 (95% CI: 0.54-0.78), indicating a 35% lower risk of mortality when compared to men. Also, women who underwent menopause between the ages of 35 to 39 had an adjusted HR of 0.72 (95% CI: 0.59-0.87), and the individuals with menopause before the age of 40 had an adjusted HR of 0.67 (95% CI: 0.60-0.76), both showing a significant reduction in mortality risk compared to their male counterparts.

Despite these findings, the study observed that the advantage women had in terms of life span was statistically insignificant. The adjusted HR values for surviving up to the 75th percentile of life span showed no significant difference between women and men in the matched cohorts. There was no notable difference in the mean life span between deceased women and men.

The subgroup analysis highlighted that the mean life span of deceased women who had never used hormone therapy was significantly longer than that of men (78.3 ± 11.6 vs. 76.6 ± 11.9 years, P = 0.0154). However, no significant difference was observed in the mean life span between women who took hormone therapy and men. Overall, while women who underwent premature menopause had a lower risk of all-cause mortality when compared to men, the overall life span advantage was negligible. 

Source:

Xing, Z., & Kirby, R. S. (2024). Sex differences in all-cause mortality and life span between women with premature menopause and men: propensity score matching analysis. In Menopause. Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health). https://doi.org/10.1097/gme.0000000000002412