Shorter fertility span raises Parkinson’s risk in women

New York, February 26: Women who attain menopause in their 30s have high risk of developing Parkinson’s. A new U.S. research has discovered a link between women’s fertility and the risk of Parkinson’s.

The researchers found that the women whose fertile lifespan was longer than 39 years were at lower risk of developing Parkinson’s, as opposed to women who had 33 years or less.

Even those women who attained menopause through surgery or hysterectomy were twice as likely to contract Parkinson’s. If such women had also undergone hormone therapy before surgery, the risk was doubled.

However, hormone therapy did not affect women who attained natural menopause.

The study, partly funded by U.S. National Institutes of Health, studied 74,000 women with natural menopause and 7,800 with surgical menopause.

Researchers also found that more number of pregnancies also increased the risk of Parkinson’s. Women who had four or more pregnancies were 20 percent more susceptible to Parkinson’s than those who had fewer pregnancies.

The study authors, who will present their findings at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, to be held between April 25-May 2, in Seattle, Washington, concluded that “longer duration of exposure to the body's own (endogenous) hormonesdefine may help protect the brain cells that are affected by Parkinson's disease.”

However, “this study does not support a role for treatment with hormone therapy in Parkinson's, but there are still many unanswered questions,” said study author Rachel Saunders-Pullman, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York.