WOMEN who drink alcohol could be delaying their menopause, says a report in
the British Medical Journal (vol 315, p 188).
David Torgerson of the University of York led a two-year study of more than a
thousand women aged between 45 and 49. Of the teetotallers, 25 per cent had
reached the menopause, but only 6 per cent of those who drank at least one
alcoholic drink a day had reached it.
This may fit in with a study published last year which showed that alcohol
increases oestrogen levels in women who are undergoing hormone replacement
therapy (This Week, 7 December 1996, p 16). Oestrogen levels are known to fall
in menopausal women.
