As the title suggests there's a Guardian article today suggesting that women who stop having periods aged 40 or below are at much greater risk of developing AI diseases like Overactive thyroid, Lupus and Diabetes.
Just speculating but wondering if the complex female hormone system can give certain protection against AI conditions, but as levels decline during peri/ menopause so many of us end up collecting autoimmune conditions at this time.
I didn’t understand it at the time, but my hysterectomy at age 39 was followed, almost immediately with hypo symptoms. HRT’s made no impact at all. Never any suggestions from any Drs that it was anything other than menopause. It took 17 years before I found out what it really was.
"They found that 5.6% of women with POI had been diagnosed with at least one autoimmune disorder before their diagnosis and 12.7% after diagnosis with POI.Overall, women were 2.6 times more likely to have an autoimmune disease before a POI diagnosis when compared with the control group. These risks varied from nearly double for overactive thyroid glands and rheumatoid arthritis to nearly 26 times for polyglandular autoimmune diseases.
Women with POI who did not have a pre-existing autoimmune condition were nearly three times as likely to be diagnosed with one in the following three years.".
I wonder whether many more womem may have actually had an autoimmune condition that pre-dated the POI but were not seeking help for symptoms or primary care doctors weren't picking up on concerns or organising appropriate tests?
yes I can believe this, but there seemed in my case to be considerable difference between me noticing symptoms eg lack of periods, to diagnosis….so was diabetic, menopausal and hypothyroid in that order by diagnosis but later going through blood results that I was never informed about I was showing signs of hypothyroidism first, which had it been treated might have not resulted in other two diagnoses within a year or so!
So I’m the other end of spectrum so to speak with abundance of hormones and classed as late menopause (58) and apparently still perimenopausal.
I had diagnosed a decade or more ago with 4 autoimmune (AI) conditions at present but another 3 others not recognised yet as AI but maybe will in future that are all interlinked with my conditions… ironically my autoimmune conditions were predominantly silent but would of shown up eventually in my day to day well being at some point it was serendipitous that on testing for what at time seemed unrelated problem my now retired GP looked at all manner of things, from odd things happening as I presented with a thoracic disc bulge causing neurological problems.
I have recently had 6 months treatment to suppress hormones and I can say it’s had negative effects on my wellbeing.
I entered being pre diabetic, my blood pressure went up, weight gain (I can definitely do without) and my blood profile FBC had few abnormal changes and blurry vision … I now hope I can get back to a healthier status now finished to what had prior to these injections … it never altered my Thyroid function from blood tests done 3 months in though.
So can’t say it’s preventive regarding autoimmunity (in my case) but definitely hormones are protective in long run it’s case of balancing.
Why women get more autoimmune diseases
is there a link between hypo and change in temperature? 
Association between genetically proxied glucosamine and risk of cancer and non-neoplastic disease: A Mendelian randomization study
Missing Link between Brain, Immune System: major disease implications
Link between cellulitis and thyroid
