A new study has revealed that the change in hormone levels during the transition to menopause affects the quality of a woman's cholesterol carriers, leaving her at greater risk for heart disease.
According to the researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, lower levels of estradiol, one of the main hormonal changes that mark menopause, are associated with low-quality cholesterol carriers, which have been found to predict risk for heart disease.
Lead researcher Samar R. El Khoudary said that their results suggest that there may be value in using advanced testing methods to evaluate changes in cholesterol carriers' quality in women early in menopause so that doctors can recommend appropriate diet and lifestyle changes.
It was found that as estrogen levels fall, women have higher concentrations of low-quality, smaller, denser LDL and HDL particles, which are associated with greater risk of heart disease. The conventional blood tests often don't pick up on such a nuance in particle size.
The study was published in the Journal of Lipid Research.
