A marker for heart disease risk worsens significantly as women enter menopause, a new US study has found.
The researchers tracked nearly 350 women for up to 12-and-a-half years and discovered their arterial stiffness – which is linked to cardiovascular health – increased from about 0.9% up to one year before their last period to about 7.5% within one year before and after their last period – a major growth.
The data – which comes from the largest and longest running study of women’s health in midlife, the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) – adds to growing research that menopause is a critical time for changes in women’s cardiovascular health.
The researchers say the study doesn’t tell them why they are seeing those changes during menopause – but they think that the dramatic hormonal changes that go along with it might be increasing inflammation and affecting the makeup of vascular fat.
They will now test in future studies to see if lifestyle interventions, medications or increase tracking of heart health could lower this risk.
“But we can say, right now, that women should be made aware that their cardiovascular health is likely to worsen as they go through menopause,” senior author Samar R. El Khoudary, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor of epidemiology at Pitt Public Health, said. “Therefore, frequent monitoring of cardiovascular risk factors may be prudent.”
Good to know.
