Menopause Symptoms: Can You Modify the Triggers?

Some things about menopause you can’t help. You can’t help how old you are, or how old your mom was when she went through menopause. You can’t help it if your ovaries are slowing down. But a French study of over 28,000 women suggests that some triggers for menopause symptoms are under your control.

The study followed the women from 1990 to 2000 and sent them a questionnaire every two years that asked for information on their dietary habits, smoking status, body measurements, medical history, use of hormone treatments and menopausal symptoms. What they discovered was that menopausal symptoms were associated with several factors, including some that were voluntary.

Women who smoked or drank alcohol were more likely to have symptoms, as were those who ate sugary snacks. They also found the risk of symptoms higher in women with benign thyroid disease, migraine and depression, but these are not modifiable factors. Since this was a large study done over a decade, it gave a lot of information about the cohort who participated. The more we know about risks, the more we can make choices that reduce them.

This research confirms what other studies have suggested – that women can, to some extent, lessen their risk of having menopause symptoms. At the very least we can quit (or cut down) smoking and drinking alcohol. We can find healthy substitutes for rapidly absorbed sugars in our diets, and thereby reduce symptoms or perhaps keep them at bay. While we wait for more good research to help us make right decisions, we can take matters into our own hands. Put down the drink, the cigarette and the doughnut – it may help you say "whoa" to menopause symptoms.

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