The Link Between Menopause And Cardiovascular Disease

Hormonal imbalances preceding menopause are known to cause hot flashes, night sweats, irritability and loss of libido. Now, new research suggests changing hormone levels puts certain women at risk for cardiovascular disease - and the so-called male hormone, testosterone, is to blame. Estrogen levels nosedive as a woman transitions into menopause, so the naturally occurring testosterone in her body eventually predominates. Testosterone exists in either a bound or "free" state. According to Imke Janssen, a statistician at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, bound testosterone is partnered with a protein that renders it inactive, while free -or bioavailable - testosterone is at liberty to "cause some action" in the body. As her study shows, free testosterone might also cause some trouble. It had already been established that women tend to develop cardiovascular disease 10 years later than men, with a marked increase throughout the menopausal stages. In fact, women older than 55 are more likely than men to have the disease.

Imke Janssen's nine-year study of 949 women shows a link between elevated "free" testosterone levels and the development of metabolic syndrome, a constellation of health risks that increases the chance of getting heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Over the course of the study, 24 percent of the women developed the syndrome; of those 55 percent had rising levels of active testosterone. By comparison, only 39 percent of women who did not develop the syndrome had rising amounts. After adjusting for age, weight and a hots of other factors, researches estimated that women with an increase in testosterone are almost twice as likely to develop metabolic syndrome. Although the syndrome correlates with an increase in testosterone activity while estrogen plays no part, testosterone isn't a trouble maker nor is it truly a male hormone since it naturally occurs in women, as well, Dr. Holly Thacker, director of the Center for Specialized Women's Health, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio. Overall testosterone levels decrease throughout adulthood and by the time a woman is approaching menopause, the deficiency can diminish or kill her sex drive, among other unfortunate outcomes.