Menopause Symptoms Correlate With Temporomandibular Disorder Pain

MONDAY, May 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Temporomandibular disorder (TMD)-induced pain and menopausal symptoms are correlated, according to a study published May 10 in Menopause.

Alessandra Pucci Mantelli Galhardo, Ph.D., from Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil, and colleagues examined the relationship between menopausal symptoms and pain caused by TMD. The analysis included 74 women with TMD symptoms.

The researchers found that TMD-induced pain was more intense in late menopausal transition than in late postmenopause. Menopausal symptoms correlated with the intensity of TMD-induced pain, and this correlation was more significant during the late menopausal transition. In early postmenopause, women with fewer than four years of schooling had a higher total Blatt-Kupperman menopausal index score and craniomandibular index versus women with more than four years of schooling.

“This study reinforces the known relationship between sex steroids, specifically estrogen, and the experience of pain. These results are unique in showing that TMD symptoms are linked with menopause symptoms and manifest differently across the menopause stages, with more prominent TMD and menopause symptoms occurring in the menopause transition compared with the years postmenopause,” Stephanie Faubion, M.D., medical director of the North American Menopause Society, said in a statement. “More study is needed to identify factors, such as low education, that influence these associations as well as strategies to mitigate bothersome TMD and menopause symptoms in midlife women.”

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