Trends of Premature and Early Menopause: a Comparative Study of the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

BACKGROUND: While evidence shows a tendency toward delays in menopause worldwide, whether prevalence of premature (< 40 years) or early menopause (40–44 years) is also reduced in different ethnic groups is uncertain. The aim of this study was to explore birth cohort effect in the prevalence of premature and early menopause in United States (US) and Korea. METHODS: This is a retrospective study using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 1999–2014) and the Korea NHANES (KNHANES, 2007–2012). We analyzed prevalence of premature and early menopause in three ethnic groups of US and Korea. We restricted our analysis to women aged ≥ 45 years at the time of the survey born between 1920 and 1969. The data of both eligible 9,209 US women and 9,828 Korean was included in final analysis. We calculated odds ratios (OR) for each outcome adjusting for biological and socioeconomic factors, respectively. RESULTS: Prevalence of premature menopause was 1.7% in US, 2.8% in Korean women. Early menopause occurred in 3.4% and 7.2% of US and Korean, respectively. In US women, prevalence of premature and early menopause did not change and did not differ across three ethnicities. Korean women showed highest and consistently decreasing prevalence (P < 0.001). When we adjusted for covariates, birth lower risk for premature menopause was evident in US Non-Hispanic black born in 1950s and in Korean born between 1940s and 1960s compared to those born in 1920s. In the analysis of early menopause, excluding premature menopause patients, lower risk of more recent generation (born in 1940s and later) was evident in Korean women. CONCLUSION: The trend and birth cohort effect in occurrence of premature and early menopause among the US and Korea women are different. Prevalences of premature and early menopause decrease only in Korean.