Hormones, weight change and menopause.
OBJECTIVE
To determine total body weight change occurring in women at mid-life, specifically with respect to occurrence of menopause and use of estrogen.


METHODS
Retrospective analysis of body weight measurements accumulated in two cohorts of healthy women participating in studies of skeletal metabolism.


METHODS
Cohort 1: 191 healthy nuns enrolled in a prospective study of osteoporosis risk, aged 35-45 in 1967; cohort 2: 75 women aged 46 or older and still menstruating, enrolled in 1988 in a study of bone cell dynamics across menopause. Roughly one-third of each group received hormone replacement after menopause.


METHODS
Body weight and height, age, menstrual status and use of estrogen replacement. Cohort 1: 608 measurements at 5 y intervals spanning a period from 17 y before to 22 y after menopause; cohort 2: 1180 measurements at 6-month intervals spanning a period from 5 y prior to 5 y after menopause.


RESULTS
In cohort 1 weight rose as a linear function of age (both chronological and menopausal), both before and after cessation of ovarian function, at a rate of approximately 0.43% y(-1). Neither the menopausal transition nor the use of estrogen had an appreciable effect on this rate of gain. In cohort 2 the rate of gain seemed to diminish slightly at menopause. As with cohort 1, hormone replacement (or its absence) had no appreciable effect on weight.


CONCLUSIONS
The long-term, total body weight trajectory at mid-life is not influenced appreciably by either cessation of ovarian function or by hormone replacement.
Davies
K M
KM
Creighton University, Osteoporosis Research Center, 601 North 30th Street, Omaha, NE 68131, USA.
Heaney
R P
RP
Recker
R R
RR
Barger-Lux
M J
MJ
Lappe
J M
JM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001835:Body Weight; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy; D004967:Estrogens; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015430:Weight Gain
D004967:Estrogens