title: Hearing decline in menopausal women--a 10-year follow-up.
abstract: CONCLUSIONS
  An unexpected rapid hearing decline remained after the 10-year follow up, similar to the hearing decline in 70-year-old women in reference materials. No clear changes concerning hearing in the peri- and postmenopausal period were noted.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess whether hearing decline correlates with menopause and/or cortisol blood levels.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective individual longitudinal study of peri-menopausal women followed for 10 years was performed at baseline, and after 2, 7 and 10 years, respectively. With a starting age of around 51 years, 100 women remained in the study after 10 years. Pure-tone audiometry and cortisol blood testing were performed at all visits.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A continuous hearing decline, at all frequencies, was found during the follow-up time. The rate of decline during the menopausal period was higher than compared with reference materials for the same age group. The correlation with time for menopause is most apparent at 1 and 3 kHz where the hearing decline is more rapid after menopause than before. Serum cortisol levels did not correlate with rate of hearing decline.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, Intervention and Technology, CLINTEC, Karolinska Institutet.
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Svedbrant
authors.forename: Rusana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bark
authors.forename: Malou
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hultcrantz
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hederstierna
mesh_terms: D001299:Audiometry; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005544:Forecasting; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Age; audiometry; cortisol; estrogen; gender differences; healthy