Menopause study looks at heart risk

The years in a woman’s life leading to menopause are a critical time for preventing heart disease, according to a new report that summarizes the latest science on this midlife transition and its connection to cardiovascular risks.

The most recent data on the years just before menopause – a time when cardiovascular risks accelerate – includes a look at the timing of hormone replacement therapy, the age when menopause begins and the lifestyle factors that affect a woman’s risk during that time.

“Over the past 20 years, our knowledge of how the menopause transition might contribute to cardiovascular disease has been dramatically evolving,” Samar R. El Khoudary, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, said in a news release. She led the writing committee for the American Heart Association’s scientific statement, published Monday in its journal Circulation.

Monitoring a woman’s health and lifestyle is especially important in midlife to prevent heart disease and stroke, and “health care professionals may consider an aggressive, prevention-based approach for women during this stage in their lives,” El Khoudary said.

The change from the reproductive to the non- reproductive phase of life is marked by changes in menstruation, and it typically begins when women are in their late 40s to early 50s.

Before this transition, women produce estrogen, the female sex hormone, which also may protect the heart. But during natural menopause, the ovaries stop producing as much estrogen. This also can happen surgically, after a partial or full hysterectomy, which includes removal of one or both ovaries.