Perimenopausal symptoms in women with and without ADHD: A population-based cohort study.

Background: Knowledge of the impact of perimenopause on women with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is lacking. We compared levels of perimenopausal symptoms and prevalence of severe perimenopausal symptoms among women with and without ADHD across age groups.

Methods: In this cohort study, we used data from the population-based Stress-and-Gene-Analysis cohort study. ADHD diagnosis was self-reported at baseline and 5-year follow-up. At follow-up, we assessed ADHD symptoms using the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale, perimenopausal symptoms (psychological, somatic, and urogenital) using Menopause Rating Scale (MRS), and general physical symptoms using Patient Health Questionnaire. We described mean scores and mean difference on MRS among women with and without ADHD with linear regression models and contrasted the prevalence of severe perimenopausal symptoms among women with and without ADHD, calculating prevalence ratios (PRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using modified Poisson regression models.

Results: Women with ADHD (n = 535) had higher total perimenopausal symptom scores (18.0 vs. 13.0, p < 0.01) than women without ADHD (n = 4,857). The difference was most pronounced among women aged 35-39 years (19.0 vs. 12.5, p < 0.01). The prevalence of severe perimenopausal symptoms was significantly higher among women with ADHD compared to those without, both overall (54.2% vs. 30.1%, PR = 1.80, 95% CI = 1.64-1.98) and on all subdimensions (psychological: 58.6% vs. 36.0%, PR = 1.63, 95% CI = 1.51-1.76; somatic: 30.4% vs. 13.9%, PR = 2.20, 95% CI = 1.88-2.57; uro-genital: 43.2% vs. 27.5%, PR = 1.57, 95% CI = 1.40-1.77).

Conclusion: Women with ADHD have higher prevalence of severe perimenopausal symptoms. These symptoms present at an earlier age than among women without ADHD, indicating an earlier onset age of perimenopause in ADHD.