The Seattle Midlife Women's Health Study: a longitudinal prospective study of women during the menopausal transition and early postmenopause.

Nancy Fugate Woods,Ellen Sullivan Mitchell

doi:10.1186/s40695-016-0019-x

Nancy Fugate Woods, Ellen Sullivan Mitchell

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40695-016-0019-x

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Abstract

BackgroundThe need for longitudinal, population-based studies to illuminate women’s experiences of symptoms during the menopausal transition motivated the development of the Seattle Midlife Women’s Health Study.MethodsLongitudinal, population-based study of symptoms women experienced between the Late Reproductive stage of reproductive aging and the early postmenopause. Data collection began in 1990 with 508 women ages 35–55 and continued to 2013. Entry criteria included age, at least one period in past 12 months, uterus intact and at least 1 ovary. Women were studied up to 5 years postmenopause. Data collection included yearly health questionnaires, health diaries, urinary hormonal assays, menstrual calendars and buccal cell smears.ResultsContributions of the study included development of a method for staging the menopausal transition; development of bleeding criteria to differentiate bleeding episodes from intermenstrual bleeding from menstrual calendars; identification of hormonal changes associated with menopausal transition stages; assessment of the effects of menopausal transition factors, aging, stress-related factors, health factors, social factors on symptoms, particularly hot flashes, depressed mood, pain, cognitive, sexual desire, and sleep disruption symptoms, and urinary incontinence symptoms; identification of naturally occurring clusters of symptoms women experienced during the menopausal transition and early postmenopause; and assessment of gene polymorphisms associated with events such as onset of the early and late menopausal transition stages and symptoms.ConclusionsOver the course of the longitudinal Seattle Midlife Women's Health Study, investigators contributed to understanding of symptoms women experience during the menopausal transition and early postmenopause as well as methods of staging reproductive aging.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40695-016-0019-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

The need for longitudinal, population-based studies to illuminate women’s experiences of symptoms during the menopausal transition motivated the development of the Seattle Midlife Women’s Health Study
This work was preceded by the landmark longitudinal study of the menopausal transition (MT): the Massachusetts Women’s Health Study begun in 1982 [2], a longitudinal study developed to expand knowledge about the experiences of a communitybased population of women as they traversed the MT
Woods and Mitchell Women's Midlife Health (2016) 2:6 contrast to earlier studies of clinical populations. Another early effort by Matthews and colleagues recruited women from the state of Pennsylvania (The Healthy Women Study) to determine the natural history of the MT, and behavioral and biological changes that occurred during the MT and postmenopause (PM) and their effects on cardiovascular disease risk [3]

Summary

Introduction

The need for longitudinal, population-based studies to illuminate women’s experiences of symptoms during the menopausal transition motivated the development of the Seattle Midlife Women’s Health Study. This work was preceded by the landmark longitudinal study of the menopausal transition (MT): the Massachusetts Women’s Health Study begun in 1982 [2], a longitudinal study developed to expand knowledge about the experiences of a communitybased population of women as they traversed the MT. This focus on a community-based population was in.

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