Associations of reproductive factors with incidence of myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke in postmenopausal women: a cohort study

Su‐Min Jeong, Jung Eun Yoo, Keun Hye Jeon, Kyungdo Han, Heesun Lee, Dong‐Yun Lee, Dong Wook Shin
In: BMC Medicine · 2023 · vol. 21(1) , pp. 64 · doi:10.1186/s12916-023-02757-2 · PMID:36803529 · W4321370537
article OA: gold CC0
📄 Open PDF View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher

Abstract

BACKGROUND: To assess the association between the reproductive factors of age at menarche, age at menopause, and reproductive span and the incidence of myocardial infarction (MI) and ischemic stroke (IS). METHODS: We used a population-based retrospective cohort study from the National Health Insurance Service database of Korea including a total of 1,224,547 postmenopausal women. Associations between age at menarche (≤ 12, 13-14 [reference], 15, 16, and ≥ 17 years), age at menopause (< 40, 40-45, 46-50, 51-54 [reference], and ≥ 55 years), and reproductive span (< 30, 30-33, 34-36, 37-40 [reference], and ≥ 41 years) and the incidence of MI and IS were assessed by Cox proportional hazard models with adjustment for traditional cardiovascular risk factors and various reproductive factors. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 8.4 years, 25,181 MI and 38,996 IS cases were identified. Late menarche (≥ 16 years), early menopause (≤ 50 years), and short reproductive span (≤ 36 years) were linearly associated with a 6%, 12-40%, and 12-32% higher risk of MI, respectively. Meanwhile, a U-shaped association between age at menarche and risk of IS was found, with a 16% higher risk in early menarche (≤ 12 years) and a 7-9% higher risk in late menarche (≥ 16 years). Short reproductive span was linearly associated with an increased risk of MI, whereas both shorter and longer reproductive spans were associated with an increased risk of IS. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated different patterns of association between age at menarche and incidence of MI and IS: a linear association for MI versus a U-shaped association for IS. Female reproductive factors in addition to traditional cardiovascular risk factors should be considered when assessing overall cardiovascular risk in postmenopausal women.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Citation neighborhood (sparse)

Too few in-corpus citations on either side for a chart; here are the lists.

Cites (2)

References (50)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-05-11T06:55:54.812037+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK