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How Heart Issues Increase During Menopause
The rise of heart issues during menopause and what to be mindful of.
Women are the heart of the family.
I remember my father and uncles repeatedly saying this throughout my childhood. We love deeply, we care intensely, and we make sure everyone in the family unit has everything they need, from emotional support to boundaries about food choices for dinner.
Women being the heart of the family meant they were the rock, the foundation.
They’re the ones who keep everything going the way the heart does for the body. And while women are the heart of the family, I thought that women wouldn’t be prone to physical heart issues. It seemed that only men dealt with health problems like bad cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
Heart disease amongst women has never really been advertised as something to watch out for unless you were obese or had a severe medical condition. So, I was completely stunned to realize that the older women become, the more they are susceptible to heart issues.
Menopause and Heart Disease
It’s true — the older women become, the more women are susceptible to heaving heart issues.
“Hormone levels change as women age, especially around the transition to menopause,” says Dr. Lindsey Ulin, a palliative care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. During our recent interview, she added: “When our bodies don’t make as much estrogen, cholesterol builds up inside blood vessels. This puts women at a higher risk for heart disease and stroke as they age.’
As estrogen levels drop, fat builds in the arteries. This increases the risk of coronary heart disease, heart attack, or stroke.
Actress Susan Lucci, known for her iconic role as Erica Kane from the daytime show All My Children, suffered a heart attack while shopping at a local boutique. When she arrived at the hospital, a scan revealed that Lucci had a 90% blockage in the main artery to her heart. According to her medical team, had she not acted on her symptoms, she would have succumbed to “the widowmaker,” a fatal heart attack.
