Sleep apnea is estimated to occur in one in every 10 women and one in four men. Treatments range from simple behavioral changes, such as changing sleep position, to surgery to increase the size of the airway. Dancey and colleagues sought to compare the rate and severity of sleep apnea in pre-and postmenopausal women. They looked at the records of nearly 2,000 women who had been assessed at a sleep clinic. Those who were younger than 45 were assumed to be premenopausal, and those older than 55 were assumed to be postmenopausal.
Obesity is a risk for sleep apnea, as is a high proportion of body fat on the neck.
Although the average body mass index was greater for the older group, the investigators found that the rates and severity of sleep apnea were distributed over a wide range of body sizes. And the average neck circumference was nearly identical for the two groups. So Dancey and colleagues consider menopause to be a risk factor for sleep apnea in women regardless of weight or neck size. He says that the hormone progesterone may protect women against developing sleep apnea because it stimulates breathing, and suggests that future studies may examine whether supplemental hormones can protect against sleep apnea. All rights reserved.