Background: Dyslipidemia is a major cause of
cardiovascular disease, which in turn, is the most
common cause of female morbidity and mortality.
Postmenopausal women (natural and surgical) are at
higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease,
especially coronary artery atherosclerosis.
Objective: To observe the relationship between blood
lipids: total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoproteincholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoproteincholesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides (TGs), and very low
density lipoprotein- cholesterol (VLDL-C), LDL-C/
HDL-C ratio (atherogenic index) and menopausal
status, and to determine the co-factors that may explain
this relationship
Methods: A prospective, cross-sectional study, which
includes 279 women, age range from 35-55 years
agreed to participate in this study. They were divided
into 4 groups according to their menopausal status.
These were pre-, peri post- natural and surgical postmenopausal. Data were collected from participants in a
pre-coded questionnaire and an overnight fasting blood
sample was collected for biochemical analysis.
Results: Postmenopausal women had higher levels of
lipids than pre or peri-menopausal. TC concentration
and LDL-cholesterol levels were higher in natural and
surgical menopause than in pre and pri-menopausal
women (p<0.01 and p<0.05 respectively). While
LDL/HDL-C ratio (atherogenic index) were higher in
the surgical postmenopausal women than in premenopausal group (p<0.05). No significant inter-group
differences were found in HDL-C. Triglycerides, and
VLDL levels were higher in surgical menopause group
than in both pre- and peri-menopause groups (p<0.05).
No significant differences were demonstrated in pre-,
peri-, and natural menopausal women with regard to
triglyceride and VLDL levels and LDL/HDL-C ratio.
Conclusion : Dyslipidemia is more frequent among
women with natural and surgical menopause groups
than in the other groups. This makes those women
more susceptible to CVD. Certain co factors appear to
have direct associations with lipid levels in each group
and those were discussed.