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

BACKGROUND: 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. METHODS: Longitudinal, 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. RESULTS: Contributions 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. CONCLUSIONS: Over 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 MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40695-016-0019-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.