Women who know a late menopause have healthier blood vessels as well as a lower risk of stroke and heart attacks.
- Women who arrive at menopause later in their lives are less likely to have strokes and heart attacks.
- This would be linked to better mitochondrial function and to the presence of certain lipids in their blood.
- Additional research is necessary.
The average age of menopause is 51 years. However, there are great variations observed in women. Some see their rules stop much earlier and others later. A study reveals that women crossing this late stage of life have healthy blood vessels longer and less risk of cardiovascular disease than others.
These works by University of Colorado at Boulder were published in the review Research traffic of the American Heart Association January 31, 2025.
Better vascular health in menopausal women after 55 years
To try to understand why an entry into late menopause, 55 years or over, was linked to a risk of developing heart disease in previous studies, researchers followed 92 women. Among other things, they examined the dilation mediated by the flow of the brachial artery. That is to say, they measured the way in which this blood vessel located in the arms expands when the blood flow increases. They also evaluated the health of the mitochondria of cells that line the blood vessels.
The analyzes confirm that menopausal women have a reduced arterial function compared to those which are premenopausal. “This is partly explained by the fact that by aging, people produce less nitric oxide, a compound that promotes the dilation of blood vessels and prevents them from stiffening and developing plates. Mitochondria of cells that Line the blood vessels also become dysfunctional with age and generate more harmful molecules called free radicals “specifies the first author Sanna Darvish in a press release.
Another observation: heart health is better preserved in late menopausal women. Indeed, their vascular function was only 24 % worse compared to the premenopausal group when this rate was 51 % in women who were menopausal at age “normal”.
Late menopause: why are these women more protected than others?
Beyond highlighting a link between the age of menopause and heart risks, research is advancing an explanation. Researchers discovered that the preserved vascular health of menopausal women after 55 years was linked to a better functioning of mitochondria which produced fewer free radicals. In addition, they had levels “more favorable” 15 different metabolites linked to lipids or fats in their blood.
“Our data suggest that women who have their menopause at a more advanced age have a kind of natural protection inherent against vascular dysfunction which can come from oxidative stress over time”, explains the main author Matthew Rossman.
Additional research is necessary to precisely determine the origin of this protection. However, the team suspects that the best mitochondrial function and certain lipids circulating in their blood highlighted with this study, could play a role.
“We hope that these works will make it possible to put the age of menopause on the card as a specific risk factor for women, whose women and their doctors will discuss more”concludes Sanna Darvish.
