RESEARCH - Increased frequencies of hysterectomy and early menopause in fibromyalgia patients

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Clin Rheumatol. 2009 May;28(5):561-4. Epub 2009 Jan 24.

Increased frequencies of hysterectomy and early menopause in

fibromyalgia patients: a comparative study.

Pamuk ON, Dönmez S, Cakir N.

Department of Rheumatology, Trakya University Medical Faculty, Edirne, Turkey.

The objective was to determine the relationship between symptoms of

fibromyalgia (FM) and early menopause and hysterectomy. We included

115 postmenopausal patients with FM (mean age 54.6 +/- 7.6) and 67

rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients (mean age 55.5 +/- 9) into our

study. All patients were questioned about the severity of their

symptoms of FM, anxiety, and depression by using a visual analog scale

and FM impact questionnaire. Patients' history of menopause and

hysterectomy were recorded. Menopause (<or=45 years) was accepted to

be early. The frequencies of early menopause (38.3% vs. 13.4%, p =

0.001) and hysterectomy (16.5% vs. 6%, p = 0.039) in FM patients were

significantly higher than in RA patients. While chronic widespread

pain and other FM-related symptoms started after menopause in 58.3% of

FM patients, the disease started after menopause in 64.2% of RA

patients (p > 0.05). FM-related symptoms started in 30 patients

(26.1%) with FM with menopause or within the first postmenopausal

year. When the clinical features of FM patients whose symptoms started

within the first menopausal year were compared to other FM patients;

it was observed that the frequency of early menopause was higher in

the former group (p = 0.048). Duke anxiety and depression score was

higher in patients with hysterectomy whose FM symptoms started within

the first year of post-hysterectomy than other FM patients (9.1 +/-

2.7 vs. 6.7 +/- 2.7, p = 0.022). Early menopause and hysterectomy may

be one of the factors contributing to the development of FM.

PMID: 19169621

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19169621

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