Menopause Not Tied to Worsening Multiple Sclerosis Disability

TUESDAY, Oct. 14, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Menopause is not a leading factor for disability progression in women with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study published online Sept. 29 in JAMA Neurology.

Francesca Bridge, M.B.B.S., from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues examined the impact of menopause on the risk for MS disability progression. The analysis included 987 adult women with relapse-onset MS identified from the MSBase Registry.

The researchers found that in multivariable adjustment, menopause was not associated with an increased risk for six-month confirmed disability progression or secondary progressive MS (hazard ratios [95 percent confidence intervals], 0.95 [0.70 to 1.29; P = 0.70] and 1.00 [0.60 to 1.67; P = 1.00], respectively). Menopause did not represent an inflection point in Expanded Disability Status Scale worsening in an adjusted secondary analysis.

“Our research found that menopause is not associated with an increased risk of disability accumulation in women with MS,” senior author Vilija Jokubaitis, Ph.D., also from Monash University, said in a statement. “Therefore, the increases in disability we see around the age of 50 are not directly due to menopause, but are likely due to other aging processes that affect all people irrespective of sex or gender.”

Abstract/Full Text