and the Heart
When a woman’s ovaries stop making enough estrogen for her body, she enters into the menopause stage of her life which produce symptoms such as night sweats, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, sleeping problems (insomnia), mood swings including irritability, depression and anxiety, bone loss, decreased interest in sex, joint pains, urine leakage and other symptoms.
Dr Steven R. Goldstein MD is a top Menopause Specialist in NYC who has helped thousands of women cope with the symptoms of menopause for over two decades. However, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is not for everyone. Dr Goldstein personally sits with his patients to go over their symptoms, gynaecological health, family history and more before presenting them with the pros and cons of hormone replacement therapy in their case. The approach to Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is not a “one size fits all” approach.
One of the ways HRT, which replaces the estrogen no longer produced by menopausal women, can help women is in the area of heart disease. Heart disease is the number one cause of death for women in the United States. In 2020 alone, heart disease was the cause of death for 314,186 women.
As a top hormone specialist in NYC, Dr Goldstein is well aware of how the loss of estrogen in menopausal women affects their hearts, cholesterol and so on. In the case
of the latter, a Nurses Health Study which has been following the health of 120,000 nurses for more than a decade, researchers found that women who took estrogen after menopause had half the incidence of fatal heart attacks as those not on hormone therapy. The reason? Estrogen replacement seemed to improve a woman’s ratio of ‘good’ cholesterol (HDL), to ‘bad’ cholesterol. In menopause the drop in estrogen causesanincreaseinLDLanddecreaseinHDLlevels.EstrogenkeepsLDLcholesterol lower as well as keeping HDL-cholesterol levels higher.
Total cholesterol levels of postmenopausal women are about twelve to twenty four percent higher than those of premenopausal women. Total cholesterol levels fall between 10 to 18 percent in postmenopausal women who take estrogen.
If you are menopausal or approaching menopause, you may schedule a consultation with Dr Steven R. Goldstein, a top hormone specialist in NYC.