Articles

Mid-life predictors of late-life depressive symptoms; determining risk factors spanning two decades in the Women’s Heathy Ageing Project

Data available from longitudinal studies of adequate duration to explore midlife risk factors for late life higher depressive symptom scores in women is lacking. This study examines midlife (mean ages 50 years...

Authors: Katherine E. Campbell, Alexandra Gorelik, Cassandra E. Szoeke and Lorraine Dennerstein

Vaginal, sexual and urinary symptoms following hysterectomy: a multi-centre randomized controlled trial

Hysterectomy is the most common major gynaecological procedure. The aim of this study was to study vaginal, sexual and urinary symptoms following total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH), non-descent vaginal hystere...

Authors: Chanil Ekanayake, Arunasalam Pathmeswaran, Rasika Herath and Prasantha Wijesinghe

A proper reference metabolic equivalent value to assess physical activity intensity in Japanese female nurses

Various questionnaires have been developed to assess physical activity, but only a few simple questionnaires are suitable for self-administration in large groups of midlife working women. This study examined t...

Authors: Yuki Ideno, Kunihiko Hayashi, Jung Su Lee, Yukiko Miyazaki and Shosuke Suzuki

Types of pain and their psychosocial impact in women with rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease predominantly affecting middle-aged women. Very commonly, pain is a manifestation of active disease and because untreated RA can result i...

Authors: Maria Gabriela Chancay, Shirin Nouri Guendsechadze and Irene Blanco

Abdominal pain during the menopause transition and early postmenopause: observations from the Seattle Midlife Women’s Health Study

To assess the relationship between abdominal pain severity during the menopausal transition (MT) and age, MT stage, reproductive biomarkers, stress biomarkers, and stress perceptions.

Authors: Nini G. L. Callan, Ellen S. Mitchell, Margaret M. Heitkemper and Nancy F. Woods

Undesirable stressful life events, impact, and correlates during midlife: observations from the Seattle midlife women’s health study

To examine the undesirable stressful life events midlife women experience, including: 1) which life events midlife women reported most frequently; 2) which life events women rated as most undesirable; and 3) w...

Authors: Annette Joan Thomas, Ellen Sullivan Mitchell and Nancy Fugate Woods

Neighborhood disorder, exposure to violence, and perceived discrimination in relation to symptoms in midlife women

Some symptoms at midlife are associated with stress, such as hot flashes, trouble sleeping, headaches, or depressed mood. Hot flashes have been studied in relation to laboratory stressors, physiological biomar...

Authors: Linda M Gerber and Lynnette Leidy Sievert

Modern contraceptive use and associated factors among married women in Finote Selam town Northwest Ethiopia: a community based cross-sectional study

A modern contraceptive method is a product or medical procedure that interferes with reproduction following sexual intercourse; however, contraceptive services remain out of reach for many women of reproductiv...

Authors: Alehegn Bishaw Geremew and Abebaw Addis Gelagay

Contraceptive challenges and the transgender individual

In recent years public awareness of healthcare disparities experienced by transgender individuals throughout the world have garnered increasing attention within the media and from health advocates. Despite thi...

Authors: A. Francis, S. Jasani and G. Bachmann

Women’s heart health at mid-life: what is the role of psychosocial stress?

Women in mid-life experience unique stressors, including transitions within their family roles, informal caregiving, job stress, and perceived discrimination. The impact of these stressors on cardiovascular he...

Authors: Andrea L. Stewart, Ummul-Kiram Kathawalla, Alexandra G. Wolfe and Susan A. Everson-Rose

The effects of age and ethnicity on the circadian variation of catecholamines and cortisol in employed women

Women employed outside the home in urban settings must adapt to changing circadian microenvironments. The pattern and extent of vasoactive hormone responses to these changes may depend upon age and ethnic back...

Authors: Gary D. James

Stress and the menopausal transition in Campeche, Mexico

Stress has been implicated as a factor in the presence and severity of symptoms during the menopausal transition. Our primary aim was to test the hypothesis that stress-sensitive biological measures and self-r...

Authors: Lynnette Leidy Sievert, Laura Huicochea-Gómez, Diana Cahuich-Campos, Dana-Lynn Ko’omoa-Lange and Daniel E. Brown

The challenges of midlife women: themes from the Seattle midlife Women’s health study

Midlife, the period of the lifespan between younger and older adulthood, has been described as a period of transition in women’s lives. Investigators studying midlife have focused on women 40 to 65 years of ag...

Authors: Annette Joan Thomas, Ellen Sullivan Mitchell and Nancy Fugate Woods

Prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy & surgical menopause for inherited risks of cancer: the need to identify biomarkers to assess the theoretical risk of premature coronary artery disease

Some women with genetic risk of breast and/or ovarian cancer (e.g., BRCA1/2) opt to undergo prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy (PSO, or surgical removal of the ovaries & fallopian tubes) in order to reduce the...

Authors: Zarah Batulan, Nadia Maarouf, Vipul Shrivastava and Edward O’Brien

Bone mineral density in midlife long-term users of hormonal contraception in South Africa: relationship with obesity and menopausal status

In South Africa, hormonal contraception is widely used in women over the age of 40 years. One of these methods and the most commonly used is depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) which has been found to hav...

Authors: Mags E. Beksinska, Immo Kleinschmidt and Jenni A. Smit

Work outcomes in midlife women: the impact of menopause, work stress and working environment

There is growing research interest in the question of whether menopause impacts upon mid-aged women’s work outcomes, but the evidence to date is inconclusive. This paper examines whether: (i) menopausal status...

Authors: Claire Hardy, Eleanor Thorne, Amanda Griffiths and Myra S. Hunter

Is in utero exposure to maternal socioeconomic disadvantage related to offspring ovarian reserve in adulthood?

Because the ovarian follicle pool is established in utero, adverse exposures during this period may be especially impactful on the size and health of the initial follicle endowment, potentially shaping traject...

Authors: Maria E. Bleil, Paul English, Jhaqueline Valle, Nancy F. Woods, Kyle D. Crowder, Steven E. Gregorich and Marcelle I. Cedars

Stress and midlife women’s health

Stress is ubiquitous in everyday life, and chronic stress can have negative consequences for health and social welfare. Although a growing body of research addresses the relationships between stress, health, a...

Authors: Lynnette Leidy Sievert, Nicole Jaff and Nancy Fugate Woods

Perceived stress across the midlife: longitudinal changes among a diverse sample of women, the Study of Women’s health Across the Nation (SWAN)

In women, midlife is a period of social and physiological change. Ostensibly stressful, cross-sectional studies suggest women experience decreasing stress perceptions and increasing positive outlook during thi...

Authors: Elizabeth Hedgeman, Rebecca E. Hasson, Carrie A. Karvonen-Gutierrez, William H. Herman and Siobán D. Harlow

The role of smoking in the relationship between intimate partner violence and age at natural menopause: a mediation analysis

Age at natural menopause (ANM) is considered as a biologic marker of health and ageing. The relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and ANM is currently unknown, and whether smoking plays a role i...

Authors: Gita D. Mishra, Hsin-Fang Chung, Yalamzewod Assefa Gelaw and Deborah Loxton

Depressed mood during the menopausal transition: is it reproductive aging or is it life?

Although there has been noteworthy attention to both depressed mood symptoms and majordepressive disorder during the menopausal transition (MT), recently investigators have questioned whether there is an over-...

Authors: Ellen Sullivan Mitchell and Nancy Fugate Woods

Contraception pathway: application for midlife women

To create a system where evidence based medicine can be applied to accommodate every woman’s needs by designing a contraceptive pathway that can be utilized by any healthcare provider, regardless of the patien...

Authors: Chi-Son Kim, Deanna Tikhonov, Lena Merjanian and Adrian C. Balica

Changes in androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone, testosterone, estradiol, and estrone over the menopausal transition

Previous reports have noted that dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEAS) increases prior to the final menstrual period (FMP) and remains stable beyond the FMP. How DHEAS concentrations correspond with other sex...

Authors: Catherine Kim, Siobàn D. Harlow, Huiyong Zheng, Daniel S. McConnell and John F. Randolph Jr.

Unintended pregnancy: a framework for prevention and options for midlife women in the US

Recently unintended pregnancies have been described as "a new kind of mid-life crisis." Given the high prevalence of unwanted or mistimed pregnancy in the US, we examined the sexual and reproductive health pat...

Authors: Versie Johnson-Mallard, Elizabeth A. Kostas-Polston, Nancy Fugate Woods, Katherine E. Simmonds, Ivy M. Alexander and Diana Taylor

Contraception for midlife women: lack of information? Lack of interest? Lack of investment?

Despite the growing population of midlife women in the USA and in other economically-advantaged countries, there is scant research focusing on this population, especially regarding contraceptive choices in tho...

Authors: Nancy Fugate Woods and Gloria Bachmann

Contraceptive preferences and unmet need for contraception in midlife women: where are the data?

This commentary discusses the limited availability of information on contraceptive preferences and unmet need for contraception among midlife women in both high and low income countries. Given that risk of pre...

Authors: Siobán D. Harlow, Jennifer R. Dusendang, Michelle M. Hood and Nancy Fugate Woods

Anti-Müllerian hormone and its relationships with subclinical cardiovascular disease and renal disease in a longitudinal cohort study of women with type 1 diabetes

Reproductive age may be a risk factor for vascular disease. Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is produced by viable ovarian follicles and reflects reproductive age. We examined whether AMH concentrations were assoc...

Authors: Catherine Kim, Yuanyuan Pan, Barbara H. Braffett, Valerie L. Arends, Michael W. Steffes, Hunter Wessells and Aruna V. Sarma

The Midlife Women’s Health Study – a study protocol of a longitudinal prospective study on predictors of menopausal hot flashes

The Midlife Women’s Health Study (MWHS) was developed to address some of the gaps in knowledge regarding risk factors for hot flashes among generally healthy midlife women during their menopausal transition. T...

Authors: Ayelet Ziv-Gal, Rebecca L. Smith, Lisa Gallicchio, Susan R. Miller, Howard A. Zacur and Jodi A. Flaws

Contraception and conception in Mid-life: a review of the current literature

In the United States, there are an increasing number of couples who are intentionally delaying child-bearing. As the average age of mothers continues to rise, more and more women are being faced with the diffi...

Authors: Kristin Van Heertum and James Liu

It is not just menopause: symptom clustering in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation

Patterns of symptom clustering in midlife women may suggest common underlying mechanisms or may identify women at risk of adverse health outcomes or, conversely, likely to experience healthy aging. This paper ...

Authors: Siobán D. Harlow, Carrie Karvonen-Gutierrez, Michael R. Elliott, Irina Bondarenko, Nancy E. Avis, Joyce T. Bromberger, Maria Mori Brooks, Janis M. Miller and Barbara D. Reed

Gender disparities in midlife hypertension: a review of the evidence on the Arab region

While gender differences in hypertension and increased prevalence rates among women at midlife have been documented in multiple settings, the evidence on the Arab world has not been systematically examined. Th...

Authors: Christelle Akl, Chaza Akik, Hala Ghattas and Carla Makhlouf Obermeyer

The Seattle Midlife Women’s Health Study: a longitudinal prospective study of women during the menopausal transition and early postmenopause

The need for longitudinal, population-based studies to illuminate women’s experiences of symptoms during the menopausal transition motivated the development of the Seattle Midlife Women’s Health Study.

Authors: Nancy Fugate Woods and Ellen Sullivan Mitchell

Cohort profile: Women’s Healthy Ageing Project (WHAP) - a longitudinal prospective study of Australian women since 1990

The cohort was commenced to examine women’s health from midlife (45–55 years) before the menopausal transition and into ageing.

Authors: Cassandra Szoeke, Melissa Coulson, Stephen Campbell and Lorraine Dennerstein

Chronic vulvar pain in a cohort of post-menopausal women: Atrophy or Vulvodynia?

Although postmenopausal vulvar pain is frequently attributed to vaginal atrophy, such symptoms may be due to vulvodynia, a chronic vulvar pain condition. Given the limited research on vulvodynia in postmenopau...

Authors: Susanna D. Mitro, Siobán D. Harlow, John F. Randolph and Barbara D. Reed

Moving toward a prevention strategy for osteoporosis by giving a voice to a silent disease

A major unmet challenge in developing preventative treatment programs for osteoporosis is that the optimal timing of treatment remains unknown. In this commentary we make the argument that the menopausal trans...

Authors: Karl J. Jepsen, Erin M. R. Bigelow, Melissa Ramcharan, Stephen H. Schlecht and Carrie A. Karvonen-Gutierrez

Women’s Midlife Health reviewer acknowledgement 2015

The editor of Women’s Midlife Health would like to thank all of the reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 1 (2015).

Authors: Siobán Harlow

Methods in a longitudinal cohort study of late reproductive age women: the Penn Ovarian Aging Study (POAS)

This report describes the methods utilized in the Penn Ovarian Aging Study (POAS), which is a longitudinal cohort study of hormone dynamics and menopausal symptoms of women in the menopause transition.

Authors: Ellen W. Freeman and Mary D. Sammel

The Passo Fundo Cohort Study: design of a population-based observational study of women in premenopause, menopausal transition, and postmenopause

The Passo Fundo Cohort Study (PFS) is a population-based longitudinal observational study of pre-, peri-, and postmenopausal women that has been ongoing since 1995 in Passo Fundo, a city in southern Brazil. Th...

Authors: Karen Oppermann, Verônica Colpani, Sandra C. Fuchs and Poli Mara Spritzer

Rheumatic autoimmune diseases in women and midlife health

Autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and systemic sclerosis (scleroderma) preferentially affect women, and are characterized by systemic inflammation leadi...

Authors: Wendy Marder, Évelyne Vinet and Emily C. Somers

Management of sexual dysfunction in breast cancer survivors: a systematic review

Female sexual dysfunction occurs frequently in midlife breast cancer survivors (BCS) and encompasses problems with sexual desire, interest, arousal, orgasm and genitopelvic pain. Although common, sexual proble...

Authors: Susan M. Seav, Sally A. Dominick, Boris Stepanyuk, Jessica R. Gorman, Diana T. Chingos, Jennifer L. Ehren, Michael L. Krychman and H. Irene Su

Management of sexual dysfunction in breast cancer survivors: a systematic review editorial---looking back to move ahead

Authors: G. A. Bachmann and S. Ramachandra

The importance of disability as a health issue for mid-life women

Data suggest that disability prevalence among mid-aged populations is increasing in recent years; current prevalence estimates for mid-aged adults range from 20 to 40 %. The World Health Organization’s Interna...

Authors: Carrie A. Karvonen-Gutierrez

Confronting the challenges of the menopausal transition

Canada’s Generation X is now entering the menopausal transition and pursuing effective therapy for bothersome vasomotor symptoms. They do so at a time when confusion about the safe and appropriate use of menop...

Authors: Robert L. Reid and Bryden A. Magee

Impact of urinary incontinence on female sexual health in women during midlife

Sexual health is important to the self worth, emotional well being, and overall quality of life of women in midlife. However, urinary incontinence, which is prevalent in this population, has a negative impact ...

Authors: Christine M. Chu, Lily A. Arya and Uduak U. Andy

The CROWN Initiative: journal editors invite researchers to develop core outcomes in women’s health

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Authors: Khalid Khan

Women’s Midlife Health: Why the Midlife Matters

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Authors: Siobán D. Harlow and Carol A. Derby

The course of depressive symptoms during the postmenopause: a review

As the Australian population ages, significantly more women are entering the postmenopausal stage of the climacteric, yet research focusing on the prevalence of depressive symptoms in this stage of ovarian age...

Authors: Katherine E Campbell, Cassandra E. Szoeke and Lorraine Dennerstein

Depression in the menopause transition: risks in the changing hormone milieu as observed in the general population

There is accumulating evidence but no definitive answers about the incidence of depressed mood in the menopause transition and its association with the changing hormonal milieu. While a changing hormonal milie...

Authors: Ellen W. Freeman

Recent evidence exploring the associations between physical activity and menopausal symptoms in midlife women: perceived risks and possible health benefits

Although the health benefits of physical activity are well established, the prevalence of midlife women accumulating sufficient physical activity to meet current physical activity guidelines is strikingly low,...

Authors: Kelley Pettee Gabriel, Jessica M. Mason and Barbara Sternfeld