Science is slowly uncovering the link between mental health and perimenopause

Women experiencing perimenopause — transition period after menopause — more than twice as likely to develop bipolar disorder for the first time according to data our research. Our study is the first to examine the association between perimenopause and the occurrence of severe mental illness.

Many people think of menopause as a separate event that occurs around age 50, which is the average age of the last menstrual period. But this is a gradual process that usually occurs between the ages of 45 and 55.

Perimenopause is the phase preceding and following menopause during which hormonal changes affect the menstrual cycle. This stage is individual and can last several years. Symptoms may include hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings and irregular periods.

Although physical symptoms are common, the potential impact of perimenopause on mental health, including mood changes and severe mental health disorders, is less studied and poorly understood.

Our research was inspired by patients at Professor Di Florio’s mental health clinic. It offers a free clinical service providing a second opinion to people suffering from severe mental health problems associated with reproductive disorders.

Many of the women at the clinic had never experienced serious mental health problems before going through menopause. But something seems to have changed during perimenopause. Suddenly many were faced with these conditions. However, upon reviewing the research, it became clear that these women’s experiences had not been documented or explored in the scientific literature.

To address this research gap and find answers, we conducted a study using a large database called UK Biobank. It is a resource that provides approved researchers with secure access to anonymous medical and genetic data from half a million volunteers. Its goal is to improve our understanding of how to prevent, diagnose and treat many serious diseases.

What we found

Using these data, we examined how many participants developed new mental illnesses during perimenopause. We then compared this to the number of new cases of the disease in the late reproductive stage, which is the years before perimenopause.

The data we looked at came from 128,294 women in the UK. We wanted to explore how the years leading up to the last menstrual period can lead to serious mental health problems, including bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. We found a 112 percent increase in new cases of bipolar disorder. We also found a 30 percent increase in major depressive illness during this time compared with earlier stages of the late reproductive period.

Our study was the first of its kind to examine first-onset bipolar disorder during perimenopause. It validates the experiences of women who were previously largely invisible in the world of research.

While there are some hypotheses as to why perimenopause and hormones may play a role in mental health disorders, much more research is needed to better understand why it affects some people and not others. Researchers also need to find better treatment options for these women.

We hope that our study will pave the way for further research into the mental health of perimenopausal women, as well as further research into the underlying biological mechanisms.

This article was originally published on Talk To Lisa Shitomi-Jones and Arianna Di Florio at Cardiff University. Read original article here.