Women who have the highest levels of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) from a wide variety of common household and personal-care products enter menopause anywhere from 1.9 to 3.8 years earlier than those who have lower levels of EDC, a cross-sectional sample of US women is showing.
"Even menopause a few years earlier than usual could have a significant effect on bone health, on cardiovascular health, on memory and quality of life for women in general," senior author Dr Amber Cooper (Washington University, St Louis, Missouri) told Medscape Medical News.

Menopause. 2014;21(12):1298-1300. 
Unsubstantiated claims, lack of scientific safety and efficacy data, and lack of quality control surround custom-compounded bioidentical hormone products. FDA-approved hormone therapy provides tested and regulated therapy without the risks of unregulated and untested custom preparations.
 

Women who started hormone therapy early after menopause saw a significant slowing of atherosclerotic progression, whereas those who waited more than a decade saw no impact on vascular health, the ELITE trial showed, supporting the "timing hypothesis."
 

Aug. 25, 2014- The International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health and the North American Menopause Society have endorsed a new term for symptoms associated with menopause: genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM). The term has been or will be introduced by David J. Portman, MD, from the Columbus Center for Women's Health Research in Ohio, and colleagues in Climacteric, the Journal of Sexual Medicine, Maturitas , and Menopause.