The association between vasomotor symptoms and metabolic health in peri- and postmenopausal women: A systematic review

The objective of this study was to systematically review studies describing the association between vasomotor symptoms and metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance in peri- and postmenopausal women. A systematic search of studies was performed in EMBASE, MEDLINE, Web-of-science, Scopus, PubMed publisher, Cochrane Library, Google scholar. To identify studies eligible for inclusion, the following criteria were defined: randomised trials, cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies investigating the association between vasomotor symptoms and metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance in peri- and postmenopausal women with natural menopause. Methodological quality was assessed using a modified NewCastle Ottawa Assessment Scale. After screening 2660 titles and abstracts, four studies, of which two cohort studies met the criteria of high methodological quality, were included in the review. Because of the heterogeneity and the limited number of studies, there is no sufficient evidence on the potential role of vasomotor symptoms in metabolic health. However, both high-quality cohort studies, with large study populations and adjustment for multiple confounding variables showed positive associations between vasomotor symptoms and insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. These findings suggest that there is an association between vasomotor symptoms and metabolic health outcomes. To confirm this and to strengthen the evidence, more high quality longitudinal research on this topic is needed.