A new study warns that the loss of estrogen during menopause may exacerbate women's jaw pain, Daily MedNews reports..

Temporomandibular disorder (TMJ) causes pain in the jaw joint and affects an estimated 4.8% of the US adult population, or about 12 million people..

By some estimates, up to 15% of American adults have at least one TMJ symptom, which is the second most common type of musculoskeletal system after low back pain.. Women are twice as likely as men to have TMJ, which has led some experts to speculate that hormonal changes play a role in the disorder..

There is limited research on TMJ during menopause, but a 2018 study found that TMJ is more common in premenopausal than postmenopausal women.. In this new study, researchers from Brazil assessed the intensity of TMJ-related pain in late menopausal, early postmenopausal, and late postmenopausal women..

Researchers have found that TMJ pain and menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes are primarily associated with late menopause and improve with age and progression into postmenopause.. According to the authors of a study published May 10 in Menopause, a journal of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS), education level and ethnicity also influence TMJ symptoms during early postmenopause..

The findings suggest that women should be assessed for TMJ as menopause approaches, study author Alessandra Pucci Mantelli Galjardo of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil and her colleagues concluded..

“This study reinforces the known link between sex steroids, specifically estrogen, and the experience of pain.. These findings are unique in that they show that TMJ symptoms are associated with menopausal symptoms and present differently at different stages of menopause, with more pronounced TMJ and menopausal symptoms occurring during the menopausal transition compared to years after menopause,” said NAMS Medical Director.

Additional research in this area may find ways to relieve jaw pain in menopausal women..

medical-heal. en.