What happens to a woman's body at age 40 or 45 or 50? We know, only too well, that things start to look different on the outside. But, surprisingly, this time period represents a big unknown in women's health research.
The '90s decade has been a rich one in understanding diseases such as breast cancer, osteoporosis and heart disease, generally ailments of old age.
But how do women end up with those diseases?
What does it mean to your long-term health to have a baby at 41?
What is the significance of having hot flashes throughout your 40s?
Why do women tend to gain weight in this period of the 40s and early 50s called midlife?
By the turn of the century, those questions won't hold as much mystery, say the leaders of a transformative new study, the first large-scale look at women's experiences at midlife.
The investigators expect that the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, or SWAN, may confirm their hunch that what women do in the decade before menopause is just as important as what they do afterward.
"Women in this age period have been understudied," says Dr. Sherry Sherman, who is directing the project, launched last year, at the National Institute on Aging. "There is almost nothing [in medical literature] with respect to their physiology. And it's pivotal. The question is: How does a healthy, vigorous woman end up as a frail, older woman?"
Sponsored by the NIA, the $17.5 million study will follow for at least four years 2,500 women between ages 42 and 52 who are still having menstrual periods. In a novel twist to the study, each of the seven research sites will focus on these ethnic groups: women of Japanese descent, Chinese descent, black, Puerto Rican descent, Mexican descent and Caucasian.
At the University of California, Los Angeles, for example -- one of two California study sites -- researchers will follow 250 Japanese and 200 Caucasian women. The women will undergo periodic physical exams and tests as well as answer questions about their lifestyles, attitudes and experiences at midlife.
Exhaustive in scope, the study will examine smoking and alcohol consumption, exercise, premenstrual syndrome, commitment to work, attitudes about aging, reproductive health, environmental exposures, genetics and many other facets of health, says Dr. Gail Greendale, director of research at the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women's Health Center.
Eye opener
