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Iron and menopause: does increased iron affect the health of postmenopausal women?
Jinlong Jian1, Edward Pelle, Xi Huang
1Department of Environmental Medicine, NYU School of Medicine , New York, USA.
Abstract:
Estrogen deficiency has been regarded as the main causative factor in menopausal symptoms and diseases. Here, we show that although estrogen decreases by 90%, a concurrent but inverse change occurs in iron levels during menopausal transition. For example, levels of serum ferritin are increased by two- to threefold from before menopause to after menopause. This observation has led us to hypothesize that, in addition to estrogen deficiency, increased iron as a result of menopause could be a risk factor affecting the health of postmenopausal women. Further studies on iron and menopause are clinically relevant and may provide novel therapeutic treatments.
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