Exposure to poverty reduces women’s ovarian reserves.
- Living in a disadvantaged neighborhood can reduce women’s ovarian reserve.
- This phenomenon leads to abnormally early menopause and infertility.
- The onset of menopause before midlife is associated in the long term with various conditions harmful to health, such as osteoporosis, neurological disorders or cardiovascular diseases.
A new study indicates that exposure to poverty reduces women’s ovarian reserves, leading to abnormally early menopause and infertility.
Poverty and ovarian reserve: a study at the scale of disadvantaged neighborhoods
This is not the first study to establish a link between socioeconomic status, ovarian reserve and advancing age of menopause. For example, in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, low education and prolonged experience of unemployment were both associated with earlier menopause, independent of smoking, contraceptive use, marital status and history of heart disease.
The originality of this new research involving more than 1,000 healthy premenopausal women lies in the fact that it focuses on disadvantaged neighborhoods.
“This study highlights the potential effect of neighborhood poverty on ovarian reserve. These results provide a better understanding of the harmful effects of psychological stress on reproductive health,” says Dr Stephanie Faubion, medical director of The Menopause Society in a communicated.
The results of the survey mentioned in this article are published online in the journal MenopauseMarch 5, 2024.
Poverty and ovarian reserve: the consequences of early menopause
Premature ovarian failure (or early menopause) affects approximately one in 10,000 women before the age of 20, one in 1,000 women before the age of 30 and one in 100 women before the age of 40.
The onset of menopause before midlife is associated in the long term with various conditions harmful to health, such as osteoporosis, neurological disorders or cardiovascular diseases.
The cessation of ovarian production can also cause symptoms which can considerably hamper the daily life of women: hot flashes, sleep problems, mood disorders, dryness of the skin, hair or vagina, urinary incontinence, headaches, fatigue, weight gain, increased risk of osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.
Today in France, one in four couples have difficulty conceiving. The solution most often implemented is their treatment through medically assisted procreation. For around forty years, this approach has enabled around 40% of households to have a child.
