Women's Health Archive

Although vitamin D is essential to bone health, a controlled clinical trial published online by JAMA Internal Medicine on Aug. 3, 2015, found that vitamin D supplements didn't build bone in postmenopausal women with blood levels of vitamin D below the 30-ng/mL threshold generally considered necessary for good health. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin randomly assigned 230 women to three groups: one got 800 IU of vitamin D daily and a placebo twice a month; one got a placebo daily and 50,000 IU of vitamin D twice a month; the third got placebos both daily and twice a month. The study lasted a year. The researchers found that neither dose of vitamin D had a significant effect on bone mass, falls, or fractures.

The Wisconsin study may not have used the right doses of vitamin D or lasted long enough to show an effect. One ongoing study, The Vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial (VITAL), is large enough to demonstrate even small-to-moderate benefits of vitamin D supplementation. VITAL is evaluating a 2,000-IU daily dose for five years in 26,000 women and men. The results are expected in 2017. Until then, it's still important to get the recommended daily dose of vitamin D: 600 IU for adults through age 70 and 800 IU for people ages 71 or older

Ask the doctor

Q. I'm 62 years old, and my last menstrual period was at age 51. My doctor told me that my hot flashes would end after "about three to five years," but I still have them. Am I unusual, and what can I do?

Among 400 postmenopausal women who were previously inactive, those who did 300 minutes per week of moderate or high intensity exercise had more success at reducing total fat after one year than those who exercised for 150 minutes per week.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) occur in women of all ages. Physical and hormonal changes can leave women at midlife particularly vulnerable. No woman should have to put up with the inconvenience and discomfort of recurrent UTIs. Self-help measures can be effective, but if they don’t do the trick, see your doctor. He or she can identify and treat any underlying problems and recommend other strategies to keep UTIs at bay.

An analysis from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) suggests not only that postmenopausal women who are overweight or obese have a higher risk of invasive breast cancer than women of normal weight but also that the excess risk increases as a woman's weight rises beyond obesity. The results were published online June 11, 2015, by JAMA Oncology.

A team of investigators from several medical centers studied data on 67,000 postmenopausal women who enrolled in the WHI between 1993 and 1998. They were followed for a median of 13 years. During that time, 3,388 invasive breast cancers were detected. The researchers analyzed the distribution of breast cancer among weight classes and calculated the risks for women who were overweight (body mass index, or BMI, of 25 to 30), obese (BMI 30 to 35), or very obese (BMI over 35) compared with women of normal weight (BMI 25 or less). They found that the increased risk of developing breast cancer ranged from 17% in women who were overweight to 59% in those with a BMI over 35. Among women who began the study at a normal weight, those who gained at least 5% of their original weight had a 12% higher risk of developing breast cancer than those who maintained their original weight. Neither losing weight nor using hormone therapy had a significant effect on risk for women of any weight.

A randomized controlled trial of Finnish women over 70 has demonstrated that regular exercise can significantly reduce the risk of serious injury from a fall. Researchers from Tampere University studied 370 women who had fallen during the previous year. They were randomly divided into two groups. One group of 187 participated in classes in which they learned exercises to increase strength, balance, and agility. They attended exercise class twice a week for a year and once a week the next year. They exercised at home on the days they weren't in class. The women in the control group continued their normal routines. All the women kept daily diaries in which they noted whether they had fallen, and if so, the type of injury they sustained and whether they required medical attention. They mailed their diaries to the researchers every month.

At the end of the period, the number of falls was about the same in both groups: 140 in the exercise group and 141 in the control group. The consequences of those falls, though, differed noticeably between the groups: women in the exercise group had 20 falls requiring medical attention, including eight fractures and six head injuries. That compared with 39 such falls in the control group, involving 14 fractures and 12 head injuries.

Participants in the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) have provided a trove of information. They completed monthly questionnaires and underwent cognitive tests. Those who showed significant decline were also tested for dementia.

Recently, researchers analyzed data from 7,444 participants over 65. They had followed the women an average of seven years. Their report was published online June 15, 2015, by Alzheimer's & Dementia.

As estrogen levels fall during menopause, a woman's risk of depression triples. Estrogen therapy helps elevate mood for some women, but a study published in the May 27, 2015, issue of JAMA Psychiatry has indicated that depression may recur once women stop using estrogen.

A team of researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health studied 56 postmenopausal women, 26 of whom had a history of depression and 30 who had never been depressed. The women were each given an estrogen patch to wear for three weeks and tested for depression. None were depressed.