[Cardiovascular risk in menopause: myth, paradox or reality. The importance of clinical observations vs statistical...

Coronary mortality among men is higher than in women in all age groups. Women seem to be protected from coronary disease. After the age of 50, coronary mortality increases fast in women and slows down in men, so that the mortality curves tend to join at some level. This fact led to believe that menopause had some influence over the non-proportional increase of coronary risk in women. Estrogens would be responsible for this protection before menopause and their further decrease would be the cause of higher coronary mortality. Mortality rate data, taken from a population with a high rate disease or a low rate disease, do not prove the above statement. For this reason it is said to by a myth. If it were a myth, then to try to prevent by administrating a substitute of these estrogens during menopause would be a paradox. If we accept that coronary atherosclerosis disease has many etiological factors, we should conclude that, besides hormones, there are other elements involved. The kind of personality, the way of life together with genetic factors related to gender would explain differences in frequency and mortality due to coronary heart disease, which, in this case, clearly advocates for women.