Postmenopausal hormone and the risk of nephrolithiasis: A meta-analysis

Menopause is reported to be associated with increased urinary calcium excretion, which may enhance the risk for the development of calcium kidney stones. However, it remains controversial about whether high level of postmenopausal hormone (PMH) is a risk factor for formation of nephrolithiasis. Several observational studies have shown that PMH is protective based on 24-hour urinary parameters. Recent clinical trials provided evidence to conclude that estrogen therapy increases the risk of nephrolithiasis in healthy postmenopausal women. Our study aimed to comprehensively assess clinical evidence on the relationship between postmenopausal hormone level and risk of nephrolithiasis. To conduct systematic review, we pooled total 98 potentially related articles in Cochrane library, Medline, and Embase. Three studies with a total of 71101 study participants that included two clinical trials, 4 stratified and potentially usable results by the status of menopause and type of PMH use derived from one prospective cohort study, and one case-control studies were selected to pool relative risk using random-effect model. How the difference in menopause status, whether naturally menopausal or surgically menopausal, influenced the pooled relative risk was included in the subgroup analysis. The study population aged from 45 to 70 years old. The follow-up year and adjusted confounders differed across different studies. The pooled relative risk for the 7 stratified studies was 0.91 (95 % confidence interval (CI): [0.72, 1.14]). In the menopausal status-specific analysis, the pooled relative risk for naturally menopausal women was 0.92 (95 % CI, [0.64, 1.27]; I2 = 82.74 %) whereas the pooled relative risk for surgically postmenopausal women is 0.90 (95 % CI, [0.63, 1.29]; I2 = 78.47 %). The above results suggested that there was no significant association between PMH and the risk of nephrolithiasis. The difference in menopausal status did not influence the relationship between PMH and the risk of kidney stone formation.