Puberty and menopause link to type 2 diabetes risk

Tuesday September 17th, 2019

Having a longer menstrual cycle and using the contraceptive pill are linked to an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, French researchers claim today (17 September 2019).

Research presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Barcelona, Spain, also shows that later puberty and later menopause are associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

The study, by Dr Sopio Tatulashvili, Avicenne Hospital, Bobigny, was carried out to determine the association between various hormonal factors and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the E3N cohort study, which investigated the risk factors associated with cancer and other major non-communicable diseases in women.

It included 83,799 French women from the E3N prospective cohort who were followed between 1992 and 2014.

The researchers found that reaching puberty at 14, rather than 12, reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 12%, while menopause at 52 years and over, compared to under 47 years, reduced the risk by 30%.

An increased total lifetime number of menstrual cycles – over 470 in a woman's lifetime versus under 390 – was associated with a 25% reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes, while longer duration of exposure to sex hormones – over 38 years compared with under 31 years – was associated with a 34% decreased risk.

However, using contraceptive pills at least once during a woman's lifetime was associated with a 33% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared with a woman who had never used them.

A menstrual cycle length of 32 days and over compared with 24 days and under was also associated with a 23% increased risk.

"It seems that longer exposure to sex hormones but later in life could reduce the risk of later developing type 2 diabetes, independent of well-established risk factors,” say the authors.

“Risk induced by oral contraceptives could lead to personalised advice for young women at risk of developing T2D, such as those with a family history of diabetes, those who are overweight or obese, or those with polycystic ovary syndrome."

The authors are presenting the poster at the EASD Annual Meeting and the material has been peer reviewed by the congress selection committee.

Tags: Diabetes | Europe | Pharmaceuticals | Women's Health & Gynaecology

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