Are climacteric complaints associated with risk factors of cardiovascular disease in peri-menopausal women?

Recent studies indicate that metabolic risk for cardiovascular disease is increased in post-menopausal women suffering from disturbances, such as hot flushes. In order to evaluate whether this is also true in peri-menopausal women, we performed an observational study on 590 peri-menopausal women of an outpatient center at a University Hospital. Each cardiovascular risk factor, such as blood pressure, fasting glucose, fasting lipids and the 10-year risk for cardiovascular disease was tested for its relation to climacteric complaints. Greene's climacteric scale, and its subscales were used to evaluate climacteric symptoms. Analyses were corrected for confounders derived by personal history and anthropometric measures. When corrected for confounders, Greene's score was a positive determinant of triglycerides (R(2 )= 0.249; p = 0.0001), triglycerides/HDL-cholesterol (R(2 )= 0.316; p = 0.0001), glucose (R(2 )= 0.101; p = 0.0003), and the 10-year risk for cardiovascular disease, calculated by the Framingham formula (R(2 )= 0.081; p = 0.0001). Greene's vasomotor sub-score was an independent determinant of LDL-cholesterol (R(2 )= 0.025; p = 0.01), and LDL/HDL-cholesterol (R(2 )= 0.143; p = 0.0001), while Greene's depression sub-score was a negative determinant of HDL-cholesterol (R(2 )= 0.179; p = 0.0001). The data also indicate that in peri-menopausal women, menopausal symptoms evaluated by a validated climacteric scale are associated with biochemical risk factors for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.