OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate the fasting plasmatic glucose changes during the menopausal transition.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

This is a retrospective observational study of laboratory studies from women visited in hospital Quirón Salud de Madrid from 2007-2018 years. The inclusion criteria were one or more laboratory studies of fasting plasmatic glucose and lipid profile from women visited because of irregular menstruation, menopausal symptoms and/or amenorrhea. Laboratory studies values were classified as perimenopausal or posmenopausal based on their date of last menstruation. For quantitative variables, Student’s T or Mann-Whitney U tests (depending on the normality distribution) were applied to analyze differences between perimenopausal and posmenopausal values. Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test were used for qualitative variables. ANOVA test was performed to compare the glucose quartiles.

RESULTS:

1949 laboratory reports of fasting glucose were included: 459 (23.6%) were perimenopausal and 1490 (76.4%) were posmenopausal, from 275 women with 7.3 laboratory report-women. Fasting plasmatic glucose was higher at the posmenopausal samples (p < 0.001). The evolution of the fasting plasmatic glucose showed a continuous increase that starts during perimenopause. There were no significant differences in the evolution trend between perimenopause and posmenopause. Age in the moment of the blood sample, gestational diabetes, family history of diabetes and triglycerides levels were independently associated with fasting plasmatic glucose (p < 0.001 in all cases).

CONCLUSION:

The differences in fasting blood glucose between periods of perimenopause and posmenopause are significant; however, data on age-adjusted blood glucose change and treatment suggest that menopausal status does not act independently on fasting blood glucose. Those that did influence were: age at the time of the measurements, gestational diabetes, family history of diabetes and triglyceride concentrations.