Physical and psychosocial complications faced by postmenopausal women with type 1 diabetes: a cross-sectional BETTER analysis.

Aims

Few studies have examined menopause's impact on health outcomes in women living with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D). We compared physical, diabetes-related, and psychosocial outcomes between premenopausal and postmenopausal women with T1D.

Methods

A cross-sectional analysis of 211 women aged 40-60 years from the BETTER registry (121 premenopausal; 90 postmenopausal). Outcomes included physical complications (retinopathy, neuropathy, cardiovascular disease [CVD], falls), diabetes management (HbA1c, insulin doses, hypoglycemia, medication), and psychosocial outcomes (depressive symptoms, fear of hypoglycemia [FOH]). Overlap weighting balanced covariates between groups; weighted regression models estimated associations as risk ratios (RR) for binary and mean differences (MD) for continuous outcomes (95% CI).

Results

In weighted models, postmenopausal women had higher risks of CVD (RR 3.31 [1.07-10.23]), neuropathy (RR 2.22 [1.17-4.21]), retinopathy (RR 2.20 [1.15-4.23]), falls (RR 2.64 [1.73-4.03]), and moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms (RR 1.48 [1.01-2.17]), and lower odds of antihypertensive (RR 0.57 [0.38-0.84]) and lipid-lowering prescriptions (RR 0.68 [0.54-0.86]), and elevated diabetes distress (RR 0.80 [0.68-0.95]). Insulin doses, HbA1c, hypoglycemia frequency, and FOH did not differ.

Conclusions

Postmenopausal women with T1D showed less favourable physical and psychosocial health profiles than premenopausal women, underscoring the need for prospective studies to clarify these associations.