Women with autism experience more severe menopause symptoms than women without the neurodevelopmental condition, a new study has found. Researchers at Bournemouth University monitored around 900 participants for five weeks and found that those with autism faced stark differences in their experience of menopause—the physiological stage of life when a woman has not had a menstrual period for 12 consecutive months. The study was published in the journal Autism in Adulthood on October 27.
Around 2 percent of American adults have autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. Symptoms of autism can vary widely, but women with autism are believed to experience: social difficulties (such as difficulty reading and responding to social cues, having social anxiety, ruminating about social interactions and more); sensory sensitivity (a heightened sense of awareness to smells, light, sounds and touch); problems with memory, flexible thinking and self-control; obsessive interests; sleep issues; difficulty with eye contact and many others. Menopause is a challenging time for all women, and research has shown that one in 10 women leave the workforce as a result of their symptoms.
The experts at Bournemouth University said that, given the struggles women with autism already experience, menopause could "worsen things that are already difficult for them." Previous research has indicated that autistic people experience menopause symptoms more severely, but the researchers at Bournemouth University wanted to explore this difference on a larger scale, as well as what could be behind it. Over the course of five weeks, they measured menopause representations—what they explained were thoughts, beliefs, and feelings about menopause—menopause symptom severity, quality of life, depression and anxiety, using self-report standardized scales. In total, 476 women with autism were involved in the study, alongside 425 women without autism.
All women were aged 40 to 60 years. Throughout the time period reviewed, the researchers said that the women with autism reported more severe menopause symptoms as well as higher levels of depression and anxiety and, broadly, a poorer quality of life. Autistic people also had much higher rates of physical and mental health conditions than non-autistic people, which could be exacerbated during menopause.
"Greater incidence of mental and physical illness is sadly a very common finding across autistic populations," study lead Eunhee Kim, a postgraduate researcher at Bournemouth University, told Newsweek, adding the reason is "likely multifactorial," including genetics (as hypermobility and gastrointestinal distress are thought to share genetic variance with autism), chronic stress and others. The heightened risk of various health conditions among autistic people is also notable as menopause can "negatively impact physical and mental health," Kim said, explaining that a person's health and wellbeing during menopause has "significant implications for their health in future. This is why it is so important that people are appropriately supported, and informed, before and during menopause." The researchers said that sense of control and coherence of menopause could be behind the different experiences of menopause between autistic and non-autistic women.
They found that women with autism reported feeling less in control of their menopause and having a less coherent understanding of their menopause compared with the non-autistic group. These feelings could "impact menopause symptoms through stress, and through affecting people's perceived ability to manage and cope with their experiences," Kim said. She said that stress can affect hormones and worsen menopause symptoms, including sleep disturbances, hot flushes, fatigue and mood changes, and she said the findings "tell us that it is very important for autistic people to have a better sense of control and understanding about their menopause to manage their symptoms and improve or maintain their wellbeing more effectively." She added that autistic people may "already struggle with managing emotions, memory and sensory sensitivities prior to menopause, which may become much harder to manage during menopause." Kim also emphasized that the findings "don't cast any doubt on the biological or physical reality of menopause symptoms, or suggest that these are 'all in people's heads'.
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