[Pattern of vascular aging of the postmenopausal ovary]

It has been established that the blood vessels during post-menopause show progressive changes that consist in thickening of the vascular wall with the corresponding diminution of the lumen, but the material where such thickening takes place, is unknown, so 70 ovaries, 35 of them post-menopausal and 35 of reproductive cycle, were analyzed histologically and by special staining techniques. In the post-menopausal ovary it was found that the arteries, veins and arterioles had a lumen diminution to 88.5%; 94.2% had a thickened wall from glucogen and collagen which was increased in 65.7% of the cases; besides, elastic fibers of blood vessels were duplicated in 52.9% of post-menopausal ovaries. This confirms our hypothesis in that vascular aging in the post-menopausal ovary, includes the thickening of blood vessels from glucogen and collagen stores, so as a consequence a diminished lumen, is observed.