Heart disease risk factors may bring on menopause

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Women with more risk factors
for cardiovascular disease tend to enter menopause earlier than
women without cardiovascular risk factors, according to an
analysis of data from the Framingham Heart Study.

Dr. Yvonne T. van der Schouw, from Utrecht University in
the Netherlands, and colleagues evaluated data from the records
of 695 women who were pre-menopausal at study entry in 1948 and
who reached natural menopause after at least two biennial
examinations.

The women ranged in age from 34 to 55 years when they
enrolled in the study, and their age at menopause was 38 to 58
years.

If the women were smokers at age 43, they began menopause
an average of 1.6 years earlier than non-smokers, the
investigators found.

Similarly, each 20-point increased in cholesterol level
before menopause was associated with a 0.14-year earlier onset
of menopause, the team reports in the Journal of the American
College of Cardiology.

Women with higher blood pressure also had a younger age at
menopause onset.

Women who either gained or lost weight during the
premenopausal period had a significantly earlier age of onset.

Dr. van der Schouw’s team notes that, while their data
suggest that cardiovascular risk factors may be determine when
menopause begins, the converse may also be true — that early
menopause with its decreased estrogen levels increases the risk
of cardiovascular disease.

In a related editorial, Dr. Vera Bittner, in Birmingham,
Alabama, points out that the average age of menopause onset is
similar in countries around the globe, whereas cardiovascular
risk factors vary widely. This suggests that “the effect of
cardiovascular disease risk factors on menopausal age is at
most modest.”

SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Cardiology, May
16, 2006.