A recent study has found that women who have experienced domestic violence enter menopause approximately one year earlier than women who have not had such experiences. The decline in quality of life caused by violence leads to unhealthy behaviors such as medication for depression and smoking.
According to the international academic journal Maturitas, on January 29, a research team from the School of Medicine at the University of Granada in Spain revealed this finding after surveying 29 post-menopausal women who had experienced domestic violence and 89 women who had not.
The survey found that 28 out of the 29 respondents (96.5%) had experienced domestic violence. Of these, 75% had experienced psychological and economic violence, 57.1% had been physically abused, and 39.3% had experienced all types of violence.
The study found that the average age of menopause for women who had not experienced violence was 48.52 years. In contrast, the average age of menopause for women exposed to violence was 20 months earlier, at 46.83 years.
A significant difference was also observed in the rate of premature ovarian failure (early menopause) or early menopause before the age of 40. Among the women who had experienced domestic violence, 20.7% had early menopause. This figure is about ten times higher than the 2.2% rate among the control group.
In additional research, the team applied the Cervantes Scale, which assesses the quality of life of menopausal women in terms of health, psychology, and marital relationships. Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating a lower quality of life. The results showed that women who had experienced domestic violence scored 72.2 points, nearly twice as high as the control group’s 34.6 points.
The researchers concluded, “Violence is associated with menopausal symptoms and a decline in quality of life. It influences harmful habits such as the use of psychotropic drugs due to depression and anxiety, and smoking, which in turn impacts conditions like menopause and other women’s health issues.”
However, no differences were found between women who had experienced domestic violence and other women in terms of alcohol consumption, the occurrence of osteoporosis, or other accompanying conditions such as breast cancer, hypothyroidism, and type 2 diabetes.
The results of this study were published in the January issue of the international medical journal Maturitas.