Menopause raises heart disease risk in women

A new research shows that post-menopausal women have greater volumes of fat around their hearts than their pre-menopausal counterparts do. El Khoudary and her team evaluated clinical data, including blood samples and heart CT scans, on 456 women in the US. The women averaged about 51 years of age and were not on hormone replacement therapy.

As concentrations of the sex hormone estradiol - the most potent estrogen - declined during menopause, greater volumes of cardiovascular fat were found. The finding held even after the team took into account the effects of age, race, obesity, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, medication use and chronic diseases.

"By showing that menopause appears to be associated with a shift in fat deposits that leads to more fat around the heart, we have uncovered a new potential contributor to increased risk of cardiovascular disease in women," said Samar El Khoudary, lead author and assistant professor at University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Pittusburg, USA.

"Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women, and it increases after fifty - the average age when a woman is going through menopause," she added. "Developing prevention strategies to reduce cardiovascular fat in women at midlife may reduce their heart disease risk, especially knowing that the menopausal transition puts women at risk for excess fat around their hearts," El Khoudary said. The finding, published online in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, could guide potentially life-saving interventions.