According to the study published in Journal Heart, several other factors like miscarriage, stillbirth, undergoing a hysterectomy, and bearing children at a young age were also associated with a an elevated odds of cardiovascular diseases in later life
Women who start their periods at an early age (at the age of 11 or younger), or experience an early menopause, are at greater risk of heart attack or stroke, new research suggests. According to the study published in Journal Heart, several other factors like miscarriage, stillbirth, undergoing a hysterectomy, and bearing children at a young age were also associated with a an elevated odds of cardiovascular diseases in later life. The additional risk varied from only a few percentage points to more than 40 per cent.
Supporting the research, Dr Sharad Jain, Interventional Cardiologist, Apollo Hospitals, Ahmedabad said “While it is not clear whether reproductive factors are driving the increased risks, more frequent screening of women whose reproductive history suggests that they might be at higher risk of cardiovascular disease could help to prevent or delay its onset.”
The team looked at more than 267,000 women and 215,000 men who were healthy and had no history of cardiovascular disease, and then looked at what happened to those participants in the seven years that followed. The statistics showed 5,782 participants developed coronary heart disease and there were 3,489 cases of stroke. Altogether, 9,054 participants developed one or both cardiovascular diseases, 34 per cent of whom were women.
The average age of women participants was 56 when monitoring began. More than four-fifths had been pregnant, and nearly half had two children. On average, they started having their periods at 13, and had their first child at 26. The findings revealed that in 2016, about two-thirds of the women had gone through menopause, at an average age of 50.
Women who began menstruating earlier i.e. before the age of 12 were at 10 per cent greater risk, compared to those who were 13 or older when they had their first period. For those who went through menopause before the age of 47, the risk for cardiovascular disease increased by 33 per cent and for stroke alone by 42 per cent. Miscarriages and stillbirth upped the risk by 6 per cent and a hysterectomy was associated with a 20 per cent higher chance of developing heart disease, the team found.
The authors cautioned that the findings are not trying to uncover the link and state a causal effect between reproductive factors and cardiovascular diseases, but the data does strengthen the association, and suggest that women with premature reproductive cycles or a history of adverse events should be frequently screened for heart trouble and conditions.