Age at Menarche, Menopause Status and Metabolic Syndrome and its Components: Findings from the Henan Rural Cohort Study.

Introduction: To evaluate the effect of age at menarche on metabolic syndrome (Mets) and its components and explore the impact of menopause status on the association between age at menarche and Mets in rural Chinese women.

Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 23382 women from the Henan Rural Cohort study. The relationship between age at menarche and Mets was assessed using logistic regression and restricted cubic spline. Interaction plots were used to describe interactive effects of age at menarche and menopause status on Mets.

Results: Age at menarche was inversely associated with the risk of Mets with the adjusted OR of 1.16, 0.98, 1.00, 0.82, and 0.77, respectively, for those with age at menarche≤13, 14, 15-16 (reference), 17, and≥18 years. Each year of delay in menarche age correlated with a 6.2% (<0.001) lower risk of Mets. Among the components of Mets, an inverse association was observed between age at menarche and central obesity (OR (95% CI): 0.92 (0.90, 0.94)), abnormal FPG (OR (95% CI): 0.96 (0.94, 0.97)), abnormal BP (OR (95% CI): 0.967 (0.95, 0.98)), abnormal TG (OR (95% CI): 0.96 (0.94, 0.97)), and abnormal HDL-C (OR (95% CI): 0.96 (0.95, 0.98)). Significant interactions were discovered between age at menarche, menopause status, and the risk of Mets, central obesity, abnormal FPG, abnormal BP, and abnormal TG (all <0.001). The adverse effect of menopausal status on Mets, central obesity, abnormal FPG, abnormal BP, and abnormal TG decreased with delayed age at menarche.

Conclusions: Later menarche was associated with a lower risk of Mets. More importantly, the deleterious effect of menopause status on Mets decreased with the increase in age at menarche.