Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S. Many people don’t realize that the risk for it accelerates during perimenopause and menopause.

And it starts earlier than people may think. The average age of menopause in this country is 51, and perimenopause starts 2-10 years before that. So women may be in perimenopause in their mid 30s.

Dr. Emily Lau is Director of the Women's Heart Health Program at Mass General Brigham. She explains the heart risks that happen during the transition to menopause.

“We see that blood cholesterol can increase, blood pressure can increase, body composition changes, for example we see that women often will start to accumulate fat mass while they start to lose lean muscle mass,” said Dr. Lau.

Ob/Gyn Dr. Jen Ashton adds that women should know their numbers--Blood pressure, cholesterol and A1C—so they know where they stand.

She adds this:

“Just because menopause is a natural transition and phase in a woman’s life, does not mean that it doesn’t have some potentially very significant or serious consequences to it,” Dr. Ashton said.

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