Age at menarche and age at natural menopause as predictors of glycemic control in type 2 diabetic patients.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of age at menarche (AM) and age at natural menopause (ANM) on glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

METHODS: A cross-sectional study was undertaken in Jiangsu, China. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between AM/ANM and glycemic control.

RESULTS: 1195 (14.3%) premenopausal and 7149 (85.7%) postmenopausal women were included in this study. With the increase of AM per 1 year, patients had a low risk of uncontrolled FPG (≥7 mmol/L) and uncontrolled HbA1c (≥7%), as well as poor glycemic control (FPG ≥7 mmol/L and HbA1c ≥7%) after adjusting for age and BMI (model I, P < 0.05) with odds ratio (OR) 0.965, 0.978 and 0.962 respectively. Whereas after adjusting for age, BMI, education, duration of diabetes, smoking, drinking and antidiabetic treatment (model II) as well as further plus diabetic familial history and physical activity (model III), the association between AM and glycemic control was not significant (P > 0.05). Compared with premenopausal women, postmenopausal women had a low risk of uncontrolled FPG and uncontrolled HbA1c after adjusting for confounders in model II (P < 0.05). Furthermore, both patients with early ANM (<45 years) and late ANM (>55 years) had a high risk of uncontrolled HbA1c as well as poor glycemic control even adjusted for full confounders in model III (P < 0.05 for all).

CONCLUSION: Early AM, early and late ANM were significantly associated with worse glycemic control. Ascertaining the AM and ANM in women with T2DM may help to identify the risk predisposed to worse glycemic control.