Association of premature menopause with incident pulmonary hypertension: A cohort study.

<h4>Background</h4>Several forms of pulmonary hypertension (PH) disproportionately affect women. Animal and human studies suggest that estradiol exerts mixed effects on the pulmonary vasculature. Whether premature menopause represents a risk factor for PH is unknown.<h4>Methods and...

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Main Authors: Michael C Honigberg, Aniruddh P Patel, Tim Lahm, Malissa J Wood, Jennifer E Ho, Puja Kohli, Pradeep Natarajan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247398&type=printable
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author Michael C Honigberg
Aniruddh P Patel
Tim Lahm
Malissa J Wood
Jennifer E Ho
Puja Kohli
Pradeep Natarajan
author_facet Michael C Honigberg
Aniruddh P Patel
Tim Lahm
Malissa J Wood
Jennifer E Ho
Puja Kohli
Pradeep Natarajan
author_sort Michael C Honigberg
collection DOAJ
description <h4>Background</h4>Several forms of pulmonary hypertension (PH) disproportionately affect women. Animal and human studies suggest that estradiol exerts mixed effects on the pulmonary vasculature. Whether premature menopause represents a risk factor for PH is unknown.<h4>Methods and findings</h4>In this cohort study, women in the UK Biobank aged 40-69 years who were postmenopausal and had complete data available on reproductive history were included. Premature menopause, defined as menopause occurring before age 40 years. Postmenopausal women without premature menopause served as the reference group. The primary outcome was incident PH, ascertained by appearance of a qualifying ICD code in the participant's UK Biobank study record. Of 136,715 postmenopausal women included, 5,201 (3.8%) had premature menopause. Participants were followed up for a median of 11.1 (interquartile range 10.5-11.8) years. The primary outcome occurred in 38 women (0.73%) with premature menopause and 409 (0.31%) without. After adjustment for age, race, ever-smoking, body-mass index, systolic blood pressure, antihypertensive medication use, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, cholesterol-lowering medication use, C-reactive protein, prevalent type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, heart failure, mitral regurgitation, aortic stenosis, venous thromboembolism, forced vital capacity (FVC), the forced expiratory volume in 1 second-to-FVC ratio, use of menopausal hormone therapy, and hysterectomy status, premature menopause was independently associated with PH (hazard ratio 2.13, 95% CI 1.31-3.23, P<0.001). In analyses of alternate menopausal age thresholds, risk of PH appeared to increase progressively with younger age at menopause (Ptrend <0.001), with 4.8-fold risk in women with menopause before age 30 years (95% CI 1.82-12.74, P = 0.002). Use of menopausal hormone therapy did not modify the association of premature menopause with PH.<h4>Conclusions</h4>Premature menopause may represent an independent risk factor for PH in women. Further investigation of the role of sex hormones in PH is needed in animal and human studies to elucidate pathobiology and identify novel therapeutic targets.
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spelling doaj-art-dd1c31530f7443ca91b46ef7fa79ef2b2025-08-20T03:25:37ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032021-01-01163e024739810.1371/journal.pone.0247398Association of premature menopause with incident pulmonary hypertension: A cohort study.Michael C HonigbergAniruddh P PatelTim LahmMalissa J WoodJennifer E HoPuja KohliPradeep Natarajan<h4>Background</h4>Several forms of pulmonary hypertension (PH) disproportionately affect women. Animal and human studies suggest that estradiol exerts mixed effects on the pulmonary vasculature. Whether premature menopause represents a risk factor for PH is unknown.<h4>Methods and findings</h4>In this cohort study, women in the UK Biobank aged 40-69 years who were postmenopausal and had complete data available on reproductive history were included. Premature menopause, defined as menopause occurring before age 40 years. Postmenopausal women without premature menopause served as the reference group. The primary outcome was incident PH, ascertained by appearance of a qualifying ICD code in the participant's UK Biobank study record. Of 136,715 postmenopausal women included, 5,201 (3.8%) had premature menopause. Participants were followed up for a median of 11.1 (interquartile range 10.5-11.8) years. The primary outcome occurred in 38 women (0.73%) with premature menopause and 409 (0.31%) without. After adjustment for age, race, ever-smoking, body-mass index, systolic blood pressure, antihypertensive medication use, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, cholesterol-lowering medication use, C-reactive protein, prevalent type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, heart failure, mitral regurgitation, aortic stenosis, venous thromboembolism, forced vital capacity (FVC), the forced expiratory volume in 1 second-to-FVC ratio, use of menopausal hormone therapy, and hysterectomy status, premature menopause was independently associated with PH (hazard ratio 2.13, 95% CI 1.31-3.23, P<0.001). In analyses of alternate menopausal age thresholds, risk of PH appeared to increase progressively with younger age at menopause (Ptrend <0.001), with 4.8-fold risk in women with menopause before age 30 years (95% CI 1.82-12.74, P = 0.002). Use of menopausal hormone therapy did not modify the association of premature menopause with PH.<h4>Conclusions</h4>Premature menopause may represent an independent risk factor for PH in women. Further investigation of the role of sex hormones in PH is needed in animal and human studies to elucidate pathobiology and identify novel therapeutic targets.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247398&type=printable
spellingShingle Michael C Honigberg
Aniruddh P Patel
Tim Lahm
Malissa J Wood
Jennifer E Ho
Puja Kohli
Pradeep Natarajan
Association of premature menopause with incident pulmonary hypertension: A cohort study.
PLoS ONE
title Association of premature menopause with incident pulmonary hypertension: A cohort study.
title_full Association of premature menopause with incident pulmonary hypertension: A cohort study.
title_fullStr Association of premature menopause with incident pulmonary hypertension: A cohort study.
title_full_unstemmed Association of premature menopause with incident pulmonary hypertension: A cohort study.
title_short Association of premature menopause with incident pulmonary hypertension: A cohort study.
title_sort association of premature menopause with incident pulmonary hypertension a cohort study
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247398&type=printable
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