According to a new study, women who are accustom to working in night shifts and even occasionally work in night shifts face a risk of early menopause.
The ill effects also include osteoporosis, memory issues, and risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The study showed women who had engaged in continuous night shifts for about 20 months ran the risk of a 9% increase of early menopause. While the ones who had taken upon rotating night shifts for more than 20 years, had a 73% risk of early menopause.
Over 80,000 nurses were part of the case study who worked at least in the night shifts in a month for over the span of 22 years in addition to day and evening shifts.
“For women who went through menopause before the age of 45, shift work seemed to be particularly important. This could be due to disruption of their circadian rhythms, stress or fatigue, although more research is needed,” lead author David Stock, from the University of Dalhousie in Canada, was quoted as saying.
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The earlier studies suggested that working in a high-pressure job with tough schedules was linked with early menopause.
Early menopause could also come from the stress of working late at night. Stress hormones are believed to disrupt sex hormones like estrogen. This could also increase the chance that a woman stops ovulating, according to the study published in the journal Human Reproduction.