Symptoms at pre- and postmenopause in rural and urban women from three States of Mexico.

OBJECTIVES: We studied the possible influence of modern cultural conditions on symptoms at menopause in three distant populations, comparing urban vs. rural women from three different States of Mexico: Guanajuato, Coahuila and Yucatán. In these groups we compared the age at menopause and symptoms at pre- and postmenopause. METHODS: A total of 7632 volunteers were selected from Guanajuato, Coahuila and Yucatán. In house visits, an oral questionnaire was applied to women 45-60 years old, non-pregnant or lactating, without hysterectomy, chronic illness, or hormone treatment. We collected general and personal data, clinical, somatometric variables, and symptoms: hot flashes, vaginal dryness, dispareunia, and diminished sexual interest. Depressive mood and anxiety were evaluated with the Hamilton-Bech-Rafaelsen Scale. RESULTS: The mean age at menopause was 48.0 years. A logistic regression identified the association of age at menopause with urban or rural residence, and the State of origin. Scores for depression and anxiety were lower in Yucatán, and they were higher in rural women. Hot flashes, vaginal dryness and the diminished sexual interest were increased at postmenopause. Hot flashes varied from 73 to 32%, and were associated with menopause, low schooling, rural residence, body mass index (BMI), and State of residence. Similar factors were associated with vaginal dryness, dispareunia, and loss of sexual interest. Depressive mood was associated with rural residence, State of residence, menopause, high BMI, smoking habit, age, and schooling. Anxiety was associated with menopause, rural residence, low schooling, high BMI, and age. The loss of sexual interest was associated with age, BMI, menopause and number of pregnancies. CONCLUSIONS: The frequencies of symptoms at menopause have similar ranges to other countries. Ethic and socio-cultural and environmental factors are involved in the appearance or symptoms.

Possible adverse effect of chromium in occupational exposure of tannery workers.

Our aim was to investigate the adverse effects of occupational exposure to trivalent chromium. We measured chromium and iron levels in serum and urine and hemoglobin levels in tannery workers and unexposed persons. We studied three groups of subjects. Group 1 included 15 non-smoking male tannery workers highly exposed to chromium from tanning and retanning departments. Group 2 included 14 non-smoking male tannery workers with moderate chromium exposure from dying, drying and finishing departments. Group 3 included 11 healthy, non-smoking male subjects without direct chromium exposure. Higher serum chromium levels were observed in groups 1 and 2 with respect to group 3 (mean values respectively: 0.43; 0.25 and 0.13 microg x l(-1)). Urine chromium levels in group 1 were higher than those in controls (mean values: 1.78 and 1.35 microg x l(-1)). In group 1 an inverse association was found between serum chromium and urine iron (-0.524), urine chromium and hemoglobin (-0.594) and between the urine chromium to iron ratio and hemoglobin (-0.693, p<0.05). The results suggest a chromium adverse effect on iron metabolism, possibly associated with excessive body chromium accumulation. In conclusion, chromium urine test could be recommended for diagnosis of chromium adverse effect on iron metabolism. Further studies are needed to quantify the relationship between urine chromium and hemoglobin metabolism.

La edad de la menopausia en la población urbana de la ciudad de León, Guanajuato / The age of menopause in the urban paopulation of the city of León, Guanajuato

Se estudió una muestra de 1,558 mujeres de la población urbana de la ciudad de León, Gto., entre 19 y 90 años con el objeto de determinar la edad de la instalación de la menopausia, utilizando el método de status quo, y mediante análisis con un procedimiento de regresión logística iterativa por un método de máxima posibilidad. En el grupo estudiado 654 eran menores de 35 años y de éstas, 20 habían tenido menopausia prematura. Las 904 restantes, de 35 años o mayores, en un 46.6% había tenido menopausia natural, y el 7.1% había tenido menopausia quirúrgica. Con el procedimiento de regresión se encontró que la media de la aparición de la menopausia fue a los 48.2 ñ DE 3.2 años. Entre las mujeres que habían tenido una menarquia temprana (menos de 12 años) tal edad no fue diferente del grupo general, y no se encontró una diferencia significativa entre las mujeres que habían tenido 5 ó más embarazo. Sólo se encontraron 157 mujeres mayores de 35 años que habían usado anticonceptivos orales, y el número de usuarias de otros anticonceptivos fue reducido para efectuar un análisis apropiado. Se concluyó que la edad de instalación de la menopausia en la población estudiada no es diferente a la reportada en otras poblaciones del mundo