CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INTERRELATION OF VASOMOTOR SYMPTOMS WITH BODY MASS INDEX

Abstract

The mechanisms of the emergence of "hot flashes" are actively considered, but still insufficiently studied. A woman's body weight is a modifiable risk factor, that is, amenable to both non-drug and drug correction. Therefore, the relevance of studying this risk factor for hot flashes is high. The purpose of this study is to study the relationship between vasomotor symptoms and body mass index in women. The study included 228 women with vasomotor complaints in the early postmenopausal period. The average age at the onset of menopause was 51.6 years (47.2; 53.4), while the median duration of menopause was 4.1 years (2.2; 5.0). Our results indicate the possibility of hot flashes in women with different body mass index. In obese women, severe menopausal syndrome (MS) is less common (5.7%) than in women with overweight (8.3%) or normal body weight (6.1%); while the average degree of MS is most often observed in patients with normal body weight (21.5%), less often with obesity (14.9%) and overweight (10.1%); mild MS is most often observed in patients with normal body weight (18%), less often with obesity (10.1%) and overweight (5.3%). It was found that in women with obesity, the severity of the initial signs of MS is not high (on average, up to 5-6 hot flashes per day), severe MS is less common than in women with overweight or normal body weight. Thus, hot flashes occur in women regardless of the woman's body weight and "obesity" is not able, as previously thought, to "protect" a woman from the appearance of hot flashes.