Science / Medicine : Menopause Tied to Heart Ills

Menopause appears to increase the risk of heart disease for women by causing harmful changes in their cholesterol levels, researchers at UC San Diego reported last week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers tested 541 healthy women before they went through menopause in 1983 and 1984 for a variety of factors believed associated with an increased risk for heart disease. When they later compared the 69 women who went through menopause in the next 2 1/2 years to those who did not, the menopausal women had about twice the increase in their blood levels of low-density lipoprotein. LDL is known as “bad cholesterol” because it tends to accumulate inside artery walls, setting the stage for heart attacks. The menopausal women also had a significant drop in their levels of high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, a form of cholesterol thought to help reduce LDL levels.

Women usually go through menopause in their 50s, when their ovaries stop producing the female hormone estrogen.