Key takeaways:

• Diabetes and prediabetes were tied to menopause symptoms and severity in postmenopausal women.
• More research is needed to understand the biological mechanisms contributing to the associations.

Type 2 diabetes may substantially increase and worsen menopause symptoms in South Korean women, according to a study published in Menopause.

“These findings not only highlight the need to recognize and address menopause symptoms in women with diabetes but also underscore the menopause transition as an important opportunity to identify and manage cardiovascular risk factors in all women,” Stephanie S. Faubion, MD, MBA, medical director of The Menopause Society, said in a press release.

Diabetes and prediabetes were tied to menopause symptoms and severity in postmenopausal women. Image: Adobe Stock

The research also builds upon current literature on associations between cardiovascular health and menopause, as cardiovascular conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia “are associated with more frequent vasomotor symptoms, and women with a higher vasomotor symptom burden tend to have a less favorable cardiometabolic risk profile,” Faubion said in the release.

According to The Menopause Society, “women in midlife commonly experience weight gain and a redistribution of fat to the midsection resulting in increased belly fat,” putting them at a higher risk for type 2 diabetes.

In the cross-sectional observational analysis, You Lee Lang, PhD, RN, of the College of Nursing at Eulji University in South Korea, and colleagues evaluated menopausal symptoms in 296 South Koren women aged 40 to 64 years using the Midlife Women’s Symptom Index.

Participants were divided based on HbA1c and fasting glucose levels into a group with diabetes, which included prediabetes, or a group without diabetes.

The researchers found that women with diabetes reported a greater mean number of menopause symptoms and a higher severity score across all stages of menopause vs. those without diabetes, but these finding were significant only in the postmenopausal stage (P = .006).

In the postmenopausal phase, the greater number of symptoms (P = .006) and higher severity (P = .008) were significant in the group with diabetes.

Symptom prevalence was statistically significant in the physical (P = .003) and psychosomatic domains (P = .017) but not the psychological domain, while symptom severity was statistically significant only in the physical domain (P < .001).

Yang and colleagues reported that diabetes accounted for an additional 1.4% and 1% of the variance in the number and severity of menopause symptoms, respectively (both P < .001).

They explained that, in the literature, postmenopausal women with diabetes “have been shown to exhibit worse glucose control in conjunction with higher menopausal symptom severity, including somatic symptoms (eg, joint pain, vasomotor symptoms), than those with better glycemic management.”

The researchers acknowledged several study limitations, including possible selection bias, limited generalizability due to the cohort consisting of only middle-aged Korean women and imbalanced subgroup sizes.

“Future longitudinal studies are recommended to further clarify the biological and psychosocial mechanisms linking glucose metabolism and menopausal symptom burden in this population,” they wrote.

Reference:

• Worse menopause symptoms may accompany type 2 diabetes. https://menopause.org/press-releases/worse-menopause-symptoms-may-accompany-type-2-diabetes. Published Aug. 4, 2026. Accessed Aug. 10, 2026.