[Thyroid dysfunction in perimenopausal women]

ABSTRACT

There are mild changes in Hypothalamous - pituitary -thyroid axis with aging that may be accompanied with thyroid dysfunctions without clinical manifestation. The aim of this study is evaluation thyroid dysfunction in perimenopausal women. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study that was performed on 100 women at the age of 40-60yr, who had referred to Gynecology and Menopausal clinic of Ghaem hospital, Mashhad University in 2005. At first, a questionnaire including clinical symptoms was completed, then patients were submitted to laboratory tests including T3, T4, T3 RU, TSH, TG [triglyceride], HDL-cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. The information was analyzed by chi2 and fisher exact tests. [P prevalence of subclinical hyper and hypothyroidism was 5% and 1% for overt conditions. In the women of 51-60 yr, the prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism was 6.25%. There was an increasing levels of TG in 20% of subclinical hypothyroidism and 13.64% of euthyroidism. There was also an increase in serum LDL cholesterol levels in 40% and 22.73% of two groups, respectively [P=0.001]. Subclinical hyperthyroidism group was not different from normal group in the view of menstrual disorders. subclinical thyroid dysfunction increases with aging and is relatively common in women. It is recommended that all aged women, should be gone under screening test for thyroid dysfunction