Abdominal pain during the menopause transition and early postmenopause: observations from the Seattle Midlife Women's Health Study

To assess the relationship between abdominal pain severity during the menopausal transition (MT) and age, MT stage, reproductive biomarkers, stress biomarkers, and stress perceptions. Women ages 35-55 were recruited from multiethnic neighborhoods in the greater Seattle area from 1990 to 1992, for an original study cohort of 508. From 1990 to 2013, a subset of this cohort consented to ongoing annual data collection by annual health questionnaire, health diary, and daily menstrual calendar. Beginning in 1997, a portion of these women also provided a first morning voided urine specimen to be assayed for levels of estrone glucuronide (E G), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), testosterone, cortisol, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. To identify how changes in abdominal pain severity changed over time in relation to age, MT stage, reproductive biomarkers, stress-related biomarkers, and stress-related perceptions, mixed effects modeling was used. In a univariate model, E G ( = 0.02) and testosterone (p = 0.02) were significantly and negatively related to abdominal pain severity, while perceived stress ( = 0.06), tension (