CKD & menopause

[Pisces101]

Thanks to mackes I became aware that there might be a relation between menopause and CKD. I did a simple search in the Medline database - and sure enough! Early onset menopause and CKD - plus CKD might induce menopause due to reduced sex hormones. Which way the arrow points is unclear (does CKD lead to onset of menopause or opposite?). Has anyone else here learned about this? The use of estrogen to reduce onset of CKD?

[userotc]

The jury seems to still be out on this, as recently as 7m ago (link below).

nature.com/articles/s41581-....

Previous studies have been rather conflicting:

nature.com/articles/ncpneph...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/213...

[Pisces101 in reply to userotc]

This article is also of interest - and the studies it refers to. Here they look at oestrogen as a possible explanatory protective factor:

Role of Sex Hormones in Prevalent Kidney Diseases

Conte, Carolina; Antonelli, Giulia; Melica, Maria Elena; Tarocchi, Mirko; Romagnani, Paola; et al.  International Journal of Molecular Sciences; Basel Vol. 24, Iss. 9, (2023): 8244. DOI:10.3390/ijms24098244 . "The sex disparities revealed by CKD epidemiological data suggest a role for sex

hormones, more specifically a protective role for estrogens. However, not all of the aforementioned studies have data on the menopausal state—and estrogen level—of the women

included." "Indeed, women experiencing early natural menopause—before

45 years of age—were at a higher risk to develop CKD, while early surgical menopause was

a hazard factor for both CKD and survival [10,11]. A long reproductive life span duration is

also associated with a lower risk for CKD development, suggesting a cumulative protective

effect of estrogen exposure over time [12,13]. However, women suffering from CKD often

experience menstrual abnormalities and shorter reproductive life spans, making it difficult

to diagnose menopause in premenopausal-age-group women with advanced CKD [14–16].

While postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) slows down CKD progression [17], one should be wary of possible side effects of long-term treatment, such as

coronary heart disease, venous thromboembolism, and stroke" -

The study they refer to as no. 17 (above) is this one: Park, Y.J.; Kim, J.M. Klotho and Postmenopausal Hormone Replacement Therapy in Women with Chronic Kidney Disease. J.

Menopausal Med. 2018, 24, 75–80. [CrossRef] [PubMed]

I find this very interesting and even though the "jury is out", it's very good to know that researchers are looking into female health concerning CKD as something different from male health. More females than males get CKD, but more males than females progress to end-stage CKD (level 5). Estrogen might be one reason - but there can absolutely be more reasons. Finding out why might enhance knowledge about prevention - or stagnation.

Please keep me updated if you come across more! And thank you for sharing!

[Mandelin in reply to userotc]

I have sworn for 8 years that is what started my kidney going down. I’ve said it to doctors but they blow it off. I have seen more women entering menopause saying they are having kidney issues.

[userotc in reply to Mandelin]

It's frustrating that the science is conflicting, as my earlier links indicate. My interest is for my mum who has had CKD 3 for maybe 12-18y (unsure as docs didn't advise!) and was on oral HRT for ~20y. I believe the HRT contributed to her CKD either directly or by increasing BP.

[Mandelin]

I never took anything gift my menopause symptoms because of all the side affects I’ve heard about, so I am just basing mine off of the r fact that nothing else changed in my life except that and seeing other women on that age range just finding out they are ckd.