Study on serum phosphate level in surgical and natural menopausal women

Surgical menopause can be defined as cessation of menstruation due to surgical removal of the uterus (hysterectomy), leaving one or both ovaries, or the removal of both ovaries. Women who undergo hysterectomy alone are known to attain menopause 3.7 years earlier than those who attain natural menopause due to decrease blood supply to ovaries. These women face severe postmenopausal symptoms due to deficiency of serum estradiol. Deficiency of serum estradiol is also associated increase bone resorption and decrease renal excretion of phosphate resulting hyperphosphatemia. Thus, increase risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis may present in surgical menopausal women. Very few studies are conducted to know the effect of endocrinological changes associated with hysterectomy on the serum level of phosphate. Hence the present study was conducted to compare the serum phosphate level in surgical (hysterectomies) and natural menopausal women. This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Physiology, Dhaka Medical College, and Dhaka from July 2016 to June 2017. A total number of 60 women were selected with age ranging from 30 to 55 years. Among them, 40 menopausal women were considered as the study group B and 20 apparently healthy pre-menopausal women were considered as control group A. Study group B was again subdivided into group B1 and B2. Group B1 consisted of 20 natural menopausal women and group B2 consisted of 20 surgical menopausal (hysterectomies) women. Serum phosphate level was measured by Beckman Coulter AU680. Statistical analysis was done by one-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni test. In this study, serum phosphate level was significantly (p < 0.05) increase in surgical menopausal women than natural menopausal women. Again, this study showed that 55.0% surgical menopausal and 40.0% natural menopausal women had serum phosphate level >4.7 mg/dl. From this study, it can be concluded that after hysterectomy serum phosphate level significantly increase which might be due to hormonal imbalance.