Photo Credit: TatyanaGl

The menopausal transition may represent an inflection point for the worsening of MS, according to a study published in Neurology. Riley Bove, MD, and colleagues assessed the trajectory of objective functional outcomes and disease biomarkers in women with MS before and after menopause. The analysis included 184 postmenopausal women with MS (median follow-up, 13 years). The median age at natural menopause was 50 (range, 33-60), and 17% of participants used any systemic menopausal hormone therapy. The Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite (MSFC) reached a worsening inflection point with menopause (slope difference, 0.08), and an increase in serum neurofilament light chain was seen (slope difference, −0.95). For the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), the opposite was found (slope difference, 0.05). Significant findings persisted when adjusting for multiple covariates. Similar inflection points were found (within 3 years of the final menstrual period) for serum neurofilament light chain and EDSS but not MSFC when using additional non-linear regression modeling.