Women who hit puberty early TWICE as likely to have stroke

February 8, 2017

Experts at Japan’s Tohoku University found a link between puberty onset and risk
They added that early menopause can reduce the brain’s blood flow and oxygen
Menstruation is first triggered by genetics, nutrition and environmental factors

James Draper For Mailonline

Published:
10:46 EST, 8 February 2017

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Updated:
10:53 EST, 8 February 2017

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Going through puberty early makes women twice as likely to suffer a stroke in later life, a study has found.

Starting to have periods before the age of 13 makes girls more prone to a reduced blood flow in the body.

This can lead to a reduced amount of oxygen reaching the brain, causing the death of tissue and leading to a potentially deadly stroke, experts have warned.

Starting to have periods before the age of 13 makes girls more prone to a reduced blood flow in the body – a common cause of stroke

Japanese researchers followed a group of 1,412 post-menopausal women between 1998 and 2010.

They tracked the women’s ages of menarche and menopause, if and when they had a stroke, and other factors such as height, weight, heart disease and hypertension.

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They noted that women who stopped menstruating age 45 or younger were more likely to get cerebral infarction – restricted blood and oxygen to the brain.

This was compared to women whose menopause began age 50, the study published in the journal Neuroepidemiology found.

This can lead to a reduced amount of oxygen reaching the brain, causing the death of tissue

After taking various factors into account, the researchers still found a significant association between stroke risk and early puberty.

They found those who began their periods age of 13 or younger are 1.8 times more likely to suffer a stroke.

EAT TO BEAT THE MENOPAUSE

Eating seeds and soya can beat some symptoms of the menopause, research in June found.

A substance found in plant-based foods which mimics female hormones, reduced the number of daily hot flushes and vaginal dryness, scientists discovered.

However phytoestrogens – a natural molecule which has effects like that of the hormone oestrogen – failed to prevent night sweats.

The natural compound found in plants may help to keep female hormones a little more in balance, according to scientists from Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

Professor Takayoshi Ohkubo, from Tohoku University, said: ‘Early menarche might predict the incidence of stroke rather than the mortality caused by stroke.’

The findings are the latest in a long line of studies which assert the age puberty and menopause factor into many diseases.

Earlier this week scientists from University College London and the University of Queensland found that childless women were 2.26 times as likely to hit the menopause before the age of 40 as women who had given birth to two children.

They were also 1.32 times as likely to have the menopause before the age of 44.

The researchers stressed that the absolute risk remained relatively low – increasing from 2 per cent to about 4.5 per cent for menopause before the age of 40.

While it stretched from 7.6 per cent to 10 per cent for those who went through the menopause before turning 44.

The average age for a girl to start her periods is between 12 and 13, although there is some variation of this.