Onset of period delayed in young diabetic women

By David Douglas

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Young women with type 1 or
insulin-dependent diabetes are apt start menstruating later
than young women without diabetes, a study suggests.

The study also suggests a link between increased levels of
total glycosylated hemoglobin (GHb), a measure of blood glucose
control, and increased age at first menstruation (i.e.,
menarche). Better control of blood glucose levels in young
women with diabetes might bring the age of first menstruation
in line with non-diabetic women, they offer.

As lead investigator Dr. Kirstie K. Danielson told Reuters
Health, “delay in the onset of menstruation in girls is
associated with decreased bone density and changes in the
reproductive cycle in women, so there is the potential for
future bone and reproductive complications.”

Information on the subject is limited and to further
investigate the influence of GHb levels and other factors,
Danielson and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison examined data on a large group of young type 1 diabetic
women enrolled in a study beginning in the early 1990s.

By 2002, 188 of 288 female participants had reported
menarche. The mean age at menarche in this group was 12.78
years, which, researchers point out, is significantly greater
than the 12.54-year figure for the general US population of
women.

In the 3 years before menarche, age at menarche was delayed
by 1.3 months for each 1 percent increase in mean total GHb
level.

The researchers think that delayed menarche “could
potentially be minimized with improved GHb levels.”

“The delay in menarche,” added Danielson, “may also be a
marker for other hormonal abnormalities in young women with
type 1 diabetes — with unknown consequences.”

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism,
December 2005.