Cardiovascular risk, metabolic syndrome and co-morbidity during the climacteric
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Abstract
During the menopausal transition women increase weight, in part due to decreasing levels of ovarian estrogens, and also due to aging. Obesity is becoming a worldwide public health issue. Weight increase in mid-aged women is related to the development of diabetes, hypertension, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, cancer, among other conditions that impair quality of life. One important one is the metabolic syndrome which is group of lipid and non-lipid factors that increase cardiovascular risk. These factors include abdominal obesity, low HDL-C levels and high serum triglycerides, fasting glucose and/or blood pressure levels; with three or more items required to meet diagnosis. The most important feature of the syndrome is abdominal obesity. Although reports indicate that the rate of the syndrome increases after the female menopause, as a consequence of an emergence of several of aforementioned features, in general due to changes in lifestyle habits and the fact that women increase body weight during the menopausal transition much before menopause onset there seems to be an increase in the rate of the syndrome before the menopause. The metabolic syndrome is considered a pro-inflammatory state with high secretion of adipocytokines which subsequently produce endothelial dysfunction and increases cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and the risk of developing diabetes. This document aims at performing an overview addressing cardiovascular risk, the metabolic syndrome and co-morbidities during the female climacteric.
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