Associations between menopausal hormone therapy and sleep disturbance in women during the menopausal transition and post-menopause: data from the Norwegian prescription database and the HUNT study

Background Impaired sleep is common in menopausal women. The aim was to examine associations between uses of systemic menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) and sleep disturbance in a large population sample. Methods Female participants aged 45 to 75 years were selected from the Norwegian Health Study in Nord-Trøndelag (HUNT3, 2006–2008) (N = 13,060). Data were linked to the Norwegian Prescription Database, identifying use of prescribed MHT and use of sleep medication. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression. Results In total, 996 women used systemic MHT (7.6%), with the highest prevalence of 10.3% among women 55 to 64 years of age. Despite high reports of frequent nocturnal awakening (24.7%) and high reports of hot flashes, use of MHT was low in this large population based survey. Although MHT use was associated with more sleep disturbance in unadjusted analyses, the association was not significant after adjusting for relevant covariates. Using sleep medication, reporting poor health, tobacco and alcohol use, doing daily exercise, having higher levels of anxiety, and being less satisfied with life were factors showing the strongest associations with sleep disturbance. Conclusion The lack of association between MHT and sleep disturbance suggests that other factors, such as self-perceived good health, a healthy lifestyle and anxiety/depression, are more relevant to sleep than MHT.