Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall. Who’s the luckiest of all?

Posted by Liz on Apr 26, 2013 in menopause | 0 comments

 

 

[‘Painting: Quattro Stagioni (Four Seasons) – CY Twombly, 1993-94.]

Menopause is seasonal?!!!

I’m as surprised as you. And as a May baby, I have a lot to think about.

According to research published several years ago in Menopause journal, there may actually be a connection between season of birth and certain symptoms that occur during menopause.

Now, before you think I’ve truly lost my marbles, let me share that data have previously connected season of birth to fetal growth rates, human life span, fertility, and even timing of menopause. The season in which we’re born have also been connected to the prevalence of mental health conditions, like schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. And, according to Italian researchers (who performed analyses on 2,451 women attending menopause clinics) scientific scores taken at the time they sought advice actually connected birth season to their symptoms.

The goal of the scale was to measure factors like vasomotor symptoms (flashes, night sweats), psychological conditions (anxiety, depression) and bodily complaints (such as sleep issues or joint pain). Just to be sure that other factors were not influencing the results, factors, for example, that can influence symptoms such as smoking, number of years since menopause and BMI, they made additional scientific adjustments. The results?

If you are an Autumn baby, you may be in luck! Women born during the Fall months were found to be less likely to have psychological issues and fewer bodily complaints. Born in Spring? Not so lucky! In fact, converse to their Fall peers, women born in Spring had the highest scores for psychological and bodily complaints. If you were born during Summer or Winter, you may just win the balance lottery; it appears that these women just fell into the middle range of scores for these complaints. That’s the more general information. But how about actual month? The lowest overall scores were found among women born in November and the highest, among women born in June. For those of you who are astrologically inclined, the Scorpio/Sags are less likely to have psychological complaints than their Taurus/Gemini friends (i.e. November and May). November actually won the trifecta, as these women, again, had the lowest bodily complaint scores while March babies had the highest.

Mind you, the results are not the gospel; the researchers were evaluating data that had already been collected on a group of women seeking advice for symptoms. So there may have been bias to begin with. Still, it’s pretty interesting. I am a firm believer that humans are influenced and affected by the tides and the lunar cycles. Why not the seasons too?

But then again, as a May baby, I may actually be completely out of my mind! What about you? When were you born and how are your symptoms?