Health Conditions

What are the risk factors?

Risk factors are characteristics that make individuals more likely to develop a disease or condition. For menopause, the only risk factors are being female and approaching 50 years of age. However, younger women with certain risk factors can experience menopause earlier in life. For example, women who undergo surgical treatments such as hysterectomy (removal of the uterus), have genetic disorders that affect the ovaries, or who use certain types of cancer therapies may experience menopause at a younger age.

Menopause increases risk factors for other health conditions. When a woman stops producing female hormones naturally, she loses the possible protective effects of those hormones. For example, her rate of bone loss speeds up, making the development of osteoporosis causing broken bones more likely. Her risk of heart disease also increases, partly due to higher cholesterol levels that occur after the production of female hormones stops. Estrogen and progesterone were formerly prescribed widely to help prevent heart disease among postmenopausal women. However, the results of large studies have found they not only do not protect against heart disease, they may actually increase heart disease risk for some women. The American Heart Association (AHA) now recommends against the use of estrogen and progesterone if they are taken only to prevent heart disease. If hormones are taken to relieve the symptoms of menopause, some guidelines now suggest they be used no longer than needed ? 5 years, at the most.