A Pilot Study to Describe Cardiometabolic Health Indicators and Prescription Medication Use in Postmenopausal Women
Emily J Arentson-Lantz1,2, Mariel K Miller3, Crystal C Douglas1,2
1Department of Nutrition Sciences and Health Behavior, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-1124, USA.
Abstract:
Background/Objectives: Relatively little is known about how the aberrations in cardiometabolic health linked with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS, formally called polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS) persist beyond the menopause transition. The study aim was to explore and contrast cardiometabolic health indicators in postmenopausal women with PMOS with postmenopausal women without PMOS. This study employed a cross-sectional analysis; comparisons between groups were completed with a two-tailed t-test. Methods: Postmenopausal females with a self-reported history of PMOS/PCOS (n = 10; 58.0 ± 5.1y; P) and without a self-reported history of PMOS/PCOS diagnosis (56.5 ± 3.6 n = 19; y; CON) completed a study visit to assess indicators of cardiometabolic health, including anthropometric measurements, body composition, sex hormones, fasting blood lipids, glucose, insulin, and glycosylated hemoglobin. Medical diagnosis of PMOS, menstrual health history, medication usage, and quality-of-life indicators were self-reported. Results: Postmenopausal women with PMOS had a significantly higher BMI (CON vs. PMOS: 25.8 ± 5.3 kg/m2 vs. 29.0 ± 3.1 kg/m2, p < 0.045), ratio of trunk fat to appendicular fat mass (CON vs. PMOS, 1.20 ± 0.39 vs. 1.40 ± 0.21; p = 0.041), and tended to have a higher waist-to-hip ratio (p = 0.089). Circulating sex hormones, glucose, and insulin were not significantly different between the two groups (p > 0.05). However, women with PMOS tended to report a higher number of prescription medications (n = 9; p = 0.058), with all PMOS participants reporting at least one prescription medication, while 36.8% of CON participants reported no prescription medications. Conclusions: These preliminary findings suggest that postmenopausal women with a self-reported history of PMOS may have greater central fat distribution and higher prescription medication use than controls. Larger, more diverse studies with confirmed PMOS diagnosis and detailed medication indication data are needed before clinical conclusions can be drawn.
