Abstract:

Objectives: To evaluate whether tubal sterilization (TS) has an adverse effect on menopausal age in a cohort of postmenopausal women. Study design: The medical records on TS were gathered from 1,228 postmenopausal women in menopause clinic at a tertiary hospital. Results: The age at menarche, the parity, smoking and secondhand smoking status and mother’s age at menopause did not show any significant difference between the groups. Likewise, marital status, educational and yearly income levels were comparable (P > 0.01). Although the mean BMI (P = 0.06) and the rate of oral contraceptive use (P = 0.09) were tended to be higher in non-TS women than in TS group, the difference did not reach statistical significance. The ever use of intrauterine device rate was significantly lower in TS group than in non-TS group (P <0.001). The TS women, in comparison with the non-TS women had undergone earlier natural menopause (P <0.001). The age at menopause had an inverse correlation with TS, and positive correlation with mother’s age at menopause in univariate analyses. However, there was marginally significant correlation between secondhand smoking and age at menopause. Linear stepwise regression analyses revealed that TS and mother’s age at menopause were independent predictors of age at menopause (P < 0.05). Conclusions: We found an earlier age at menopause in women with TS in this study. In this regard, this is the first report about the age at menopause in women with TS, as far as we know.

Keywords: