Research
Hormonal
Surgical menopause (bilateral oophorectomy) is associated with more severe sleep disturbances and higher prevalence of sleep difficulty compared to natural menopause, largely due to more severe hot flashes.
If you had your ovaries removed, expect more severe sleep issues than natural menopause. Discuss Hormone Therapy (HT) with your doctor if not contraindicated, as it improves sleep. If HT is not an option, CBT-I and non-hormonal medications are effective alternatives.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Surgical menopause is associated with more severe sleep disturbances than natural menopause. Kravitz et al reported that women in the SWAN study who had a bilateral oophorectomy and who were not using HT had the highest prevalence of sleep difficulty...
Why this rating
Supported by SWAN study data and meta-analysis.
Source
Sleep problems during the menopausal transition: prevalence, impact, and management challenges
Fiona C. Baker et al. · Nature and Science of Sleep · 2018
DOI 10.2147/nss.s125807
narrative_reviewCited 263×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Hot flashes (vasomotor symptoms) are a major contributor to sleep disturbances during the menopausal transition, with HF-associated wake time significantly contributing to overall wakefulness after sleep onset (WASO).Good
- Menopausal stage (early/late transition, postmenopause) is associated with increased odds of self-reported sleep difficulties, particularly frequent awakenings, independent of age.Good
- Polysomnographic (PSG) measures do not consistently show sleep architecture changes linked directly to menopausal stage, despite strong self-report of sleep difficulties.Moderate
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