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Severe facial wrinkles during the first few years of menopause may indicate a lower bone density in post-menopausal women, U.S. researchers suggest.

Dr. Lubna Pal, a reproductive endocrinologist at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., says the study demonstrates only an association between bone density and skin wrinkling, but she described the findings as "noteworthy."

"In post-menopausal women the appearance of the skin may offer a glimpse of the skeletal well-being, a relationship not previously described," Pal says in a statement. "This information may allow for the possibility of identifying postmenopausal women at fracture risk at a glance, without dependence on costly tests."

The study involved 114 women in their late 40s and early 50s who had had their last menstrual period within the past three years and were not taking hormone therapy. The women received a score for face and neck wrinkles based on the number of sites with wrinkles and on the depth of the wrinkles.

The study found a significant inverse correlation between the wrinkle score and the bone density, meaning the worse the wrinkles, the lower the bone density -- independent of age, body composition or other factors known to influence bone density -- while firmer skin of the face and forehead was associated with greater bone density.

The findings were at The Endocrine Society's 93rd annual meeting in Boston. 

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