Differences in Primary Hyperparathyroidism Between Pre- and Postmenopausal Women in India

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a common endocrine disorder in women which becomes more prevalent after menopause. In this study, we compared the demographic, clinical, and biochemical variables between premenopausal (pre-M) and postmenopausal (post-M) women with PHPT.

A retrospective analysis (from 2005 to 2019) of enrolled women PHPT patients from an online Indian PHPT registry.

Of the women with PHPT, 232 and 122 were pre-M and post-M, respectively. The number of post-M PHPT cases registered had a 3.3-fold increase in 2015-2019 from 2005-2009 compared with only a 2.5-fold increase in pre-M cases in the same duration. The majority were symptomatic (90%), although pre-M had a higher proportion of symptomatic than post-M (92% vs 85%; P = .04). Pre-M women showed more prevalence of osteitis fibrosa cystica than post-M women (28% vs 13%; P = .03), although hypertension and gallstone disease were seen more frequently in post-M PHPT women. Pre-M women had a significantly higher median PTH (403 vs 246 pg/mL; P = .02) and median alkaline phosphatase (202 vs 145 pg/mL; P = .02) than post-M women, and vitamin D deficiency was more common in pre-M women (58% vs 45%; P = .03). Gland localization, tumor weight, and disease cure rates did not differ according to menopausal status.

PHPT was more prevalent in pre-M women, although the number of post-M cases had significantly increased in the last 10 years. Pre-M women had generally more severe clinical and biochemical variables than post-M PHPT women.