Is serum ferritin an additional cardiovascular risk factor for all postmenopausal women?

Most of the studies on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in menopause have focused on serum lipid(lipoprotein) abnormalities and were conducted in populations which were not well controlled for several important influential factors.

Two homogenous groups of 30 apparently healthy Caucasian premenopausal women and 3-5 years postmenopausal women who were nonobese, nonsmoking and not using estrogen were compared in a well-controlled cross-sectional design. Fasting serum ferritin and plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) were evaluated concomitantly to classical serum lipid(lipoprotein) risk factors. Relationships between risk factors and the influence of other contributing variables such as diet and body weight were also examined.

Serum total cholesterol (p < 0.01), low-density lipoproteins (LDL; p < 0.05) and triglycerides (p < 0.05) of postmenopausal women were greater than that of their menstruating counterparts, even though they ate a CVD-preventive diet, had similar body weight and body fat distribution. Their serum ferritin was almost 3-fold greater (p < 0.0001) but was still within normal limits, except for the 38.5% of postmenopausal women who exhibited values above the 80 mug/l limit that has been associated with sharp increases in the rate of heart disease in either gender. Serum ferritin was low in one third of the postmenopausal group (as low as in the premenopausal control group, whose dietary iron intake was slightly below the nutritional recommendation). The mean plasma tHcy of the postmenopausal group was almost twice as elevated (p < 0.0001). Both ferritin and tHcy were found to be linked to serum cholesterol. The correlation between tHcy and triglycerides was also significant.

Early menopause is not associated with blood iron overload and CVD risk factor in an important proportion of women.