Women may be more vulnerable to acute coronary events during menstruation, according to preliminary findings of a Canadian study. Researchers from the Laval university, Quebec, are testing the hypothesis that acute fluctuations of 17b-estradiol alter the risk of coronary events enough for subjects to report serious heart problems during and immediately after menses.
So far, 28 premenopausal, Caucasian women, aged 35 to 47, have been recruited. Twenty of the women who were admitted to hospital with myocardial infarction or unstable angina with ECG changes, reported such coronary events within five days of the onset of menstruation, when estrogen levels are at their lowest. Lead researcher Dr Bettina Hamelin (professor of pharmacy) said that these women had "a number of other important risk factors, such as smoking or diabetes”. She also commented that the incidence of heart disease in women had increased.
This study is part of another larger ongoing trial examining the role of risk factors, including estrogen, on unexpected heart attacks in women. The results were presented at the American Heart Association's annual conference in New Orleans, United States, on November 14.