By Jenny Hope
Last updated at 1:20 AM on 22nd June 2010
Women who go through an early menopause run twice the risk of a heart attack or stroke in later life, warn researchers.
They found women are more prone to heart disease if they stop having periods at an early age.
A new study confirms previous research linking higher risk of heart attack with premature menopause, which happens to one per cent of women in their teens, 20s, and 30s.
Risk: The menopausal reduction in oestrogen is thought to cause heart disease
But it found the risk applies to a wide range of racial backgrounds, not just white and European women.
Among possible explanations is the reduction in a woman's natural supply of oestrogen at a much earlier stage of life than would normally occur at the menopause.
Oestrogen is throught to protect against heart disease.
In the UK, the average age of the menopause is 51 years, when women's ovaries run out of eggs and they can no longer have children.
It is estimated around one in five women in the UK undergo a hysterectomy before the age of 52 years which can trigger an early menopause even if the ovaries are retained.
The latest U.S. study involving 2,500 women aged 45 to 84 years found women who had an early menopause - before the age of 46 - had more than twice the risk of having a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular event.
Dr Melissa Wellons, of the University of Alabam, Birmingham, said 'It is important for women to know that early menopause is a potential risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
'They can then work harder to improve their modifiable risk factors, such as high cholesterol and blood pressure, by exercising and following a healty diet.'
The study started in 2000 when researchers recruited the women. 40 per cent were white, 25 per cent were black, 22 per cent were Hispanic and 13 per cent were Chinese-American.
Around one-quarter of the women had an early menopause, 446 women had natural menopause and 247 had a hysterectomy.
Those who had not gone through the menopause when the results were analysed were included in the group that did not have premature menopause.
No women had a heart attack or stroke before the age of 55, say findings due to be presented at The Endocrine Society's meeting in San Diego (must credit).
After that, women who had early menopause were twice as likely to have had a cardiovascular disease event as women who had not gone through the menopause before the age of 46.
Dr Wellons said 'Our study is observational; therefore, we cannot conclude that early menopause somehow causes future cardiovascular disease.
'However, our findings do support the possible use of age at menopause as a marker of future heart and vascular disease risk.'
Dr John Stevenson, reader in metabolic medicine at Imperial College London, and chairman of Women's Health Concern, said Hormone Replacement Therapy is often prescribed for women who suffer from symptoms caused by premature menopause.
But it has also been found to protect the arteries against cardiovascular problems, he said.
'Other studies have shown HRT gives a protective effect, which is important because we know that heart disease rises among women after the menopause' he added.
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