Impact of female hormonal exposure on risk of RA
Key clinical point: Early age at first pregnancy (less than 22 years) and early menopause (45 years and earlier) were associated with a higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), whereas long-term progestogen use (more than 24 months) before menopause was associated with a reduced risk.
Major finding: The risk of RA was a significantly increased with early age at first pregnancy (less than 22 vs. 27 or more years; hazard ratio [HR], 1.34; Ptrend = .028) and menopause (45 or less vs. 53 or more years; HR, 1.40; Ptrend = .039). Risk of RA was inversely related to exposure to progestogen only in perimenopause (more than 24 vs. 0 months; multi-adjusted HR, 0.77; Ptrend = .004).
Study details: This study included 78,452 women, with 698 incident cases of RA using data from the French E3N-EPIC cohort study.
,Disclosures: The study was funded by a research grant from FOREUM Foundation for Research in Rheumatology. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Salliot C et al. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2021 Feb 6. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keab101.