Menopause will cause series of pathophysiologic changes and long-term complications (coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, osteoporosis, etc.), among which coronary heart disease is a major health threat.

To investigate the effects of menopausal status and aging on common risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) in middle-aged women, such as increased carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and obesity.

A total of 556 healthy premenopausal women aged 45 to 54 years who received regular physical examinations at the physical examination center of Beijing Shijitan Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University in 2018 were initially selected, with 89 excluded according to relevant criteria, and 467 women were finally included as study subjects. The included subjects were divided into the pre-menopausal group (n=176) and postmenopausal group (n=291) according to whether they were postmenopausal during a 3-year follow-up period. Changes in BMI, waist circumference, blood glucose, blood pressure, blood lipids and other indicators were monitored, inter- and intra-group comparisons were performed before and after the follow-up period. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the effects of menopausal status and age on the incidence of risk factors for coronary heart disease in middle-aged women.

The average age of 467 subjects was (47.6±2.3) years old. Compared with baseline, waist circumference, uric acid (UA), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels increased, fasting blood glucose (FBG) level decreased after 3 years (P<0.05). The results of inter-group comparison showed that there was no significant difference in waist circumference, BMI, TG, FBG and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels between the two groups after three years (P<0.05) ; the levels of UA, TC and LDL-C in the menopausal group were higher than those in the pre-menopausal group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The results of intra-group comparison showed that the waist circumference in the two groups after 3 years was higher than baseline (P<0.05) ; the levels of UA, TC and TG in the pre-menopausal group after 3 years were higher than the baseline (P<0.05) ; the levels of UA, TC, TG and LDL-C in the postmenopausal group after 3 years were higher than the baseline (P<0.05). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that age ≥50 years old was a high-risk factor for increased CIMT in middle-aged women (OR=2.475, 95%CI=1.049-5.838, P=0.038) .

The changes in waist circumference and TG in middle-aged women are mainly affected by age, the changes of LDL-C are mainly affected by menopausal status, and the changes of TC and UA are affected by both menopausal status and increased age. Age ≥50 years is a high risk factor for increased CIMT in middle-aged women, and the changes of metabolic indicators such as UA, TC and LDL-C precede changes in CIMT after menopause.