As you enter into menopause and your period has stopped for 12 consecutive months, your estrogen levels are now markedly lower. This means your risk of heart disease will increase. This is because estrogen has a protective function for our heart and blood vessels.
There are also other physiological changes that are associated with menopause that put your heart and health at an increased risk, such as a decline in insulin sensitivity, an increase in storage of visceral fat, and more.
Knowing some key information about your heart prior to menopause allows you to begin to track and monitor the impact your lifestyle improvements are making on your health, including your heart.
Dr MacGregor is a family physician who has been practicing comprehensive family medicine for over 20 years with a lens of root-cause, personalized, holistic medicine. She completed her certification at the Institute for Functional Medicine in 2023. She is also a member of the North American Menopause Society and has special interests in women’s health and cardiometabolic health. She is currently a practicing physician at La Vie Executive Health Centre.
Dr. MacGregor sat down with us and discussed heart health and women. According to Dr. MacGregor, to assess risk, physicians need to understand all of your risk factors, including personal and family history, history of smoking, diet and exercise history, alcohol use, disordered sleep history as well as markers related to blood pressure, cholesterol, inflammation, blood sugar and body composition.
Ensuring that you can give your doctor accurate information about your family history of heart disease is really important.
For women, it is important to take into consideration a history of prior pregnancy-related complications such as:
Menopausal status and symptoms are also important and can influence risk.
Most cardiovascular risk factors are well understood and are modifiable. It is estimated that 80% of heart disease is preventable. If risk factors are modified, one’s risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as many other major diseases, can be significantly reduced.
Some markers to consider for testing include:
For more information about specific markers and types of tests, join our PAUZ Community.
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