Menu"Oh, my aching back!" It's not an uncommon complaint heard from both men and women as they age and experience lumbar disc degeneration. Now a new study out of China suggests that menopause is associated with severity of disc degeneration in the lumbar spine. The study outcomes are being published in an article available online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).
Available evidence strongly supports the involvement of estrogen deficiency in disc degeneration, as well as the benefits of hormone therapy (HT) on the total lumbar disc height in postmenopausal women. Multiple studies have previously investigated the association between menopause and lumbar disc degeneration; however, the study detailed in the article "Association between menopause and lumbar disc degeneration: an MRI study of 1,566 women and 1,382 men" is the first known to include a portion of age-matched men as a comparison group.
Source: Medical Xpress
