Middle-aged women with eating disorders could slip into menopause without realising it, drastically increasing their fracture risk, a leading endocrinologist warns.

Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder are typically seen in younger patients, yet an estimated 3-4% of menopausal women are also affected.

These patients — many of whom would have developed an eating disorder in adolescence or early adulthood — are unlikely to experience a typical transition into menopause, says Melbourne endocrinologist Professor Susan Davis.

“It is not a classic situation where a woman stops menstruating suddenly or their periods become irregular because they have always been irregular,” she tells AusDoc.