Study Probes Links Between Hot Flashes, Heart Attacks

Feb. 25, 2011— -- There just might be a plus side to the more bothersome symptoms of menopause depending on when you get them, new research suggests. A new study suggests that women who experience that crimson blush of a hot flash early on in their menopause experience seemed to have a lower risk of heart attack.

"The timing of hot flashes may make a big difference in terms of what they signify in terms of heart health," said Dr. Ellen Seely, of Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, the senior author of the study.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women, and the risk increases dramatically after menopause. The study found a woman's risk of heart attack rises depending on when hot flashes begin in menopause.

The study, which analyzed data from more than 60,000 women over an average of almost 10 years. Women were asked to recall their symptoms -- like hot flashes and night sweats -- in questionnaires about their health. The women were in their early 60s on average, about 14 years after the start of menopause.

Dr. Sharonne Hayes, from the Mayo Clinic's department of cardiovascular diseases, said the results of the study add to the growing understanding of the complicated relationship between symptoms of menopause and heart attacks later in life.

"What it does tell us is that the interplay between hot flashes and night sweats and future cardiovascular risk and menopause is much more complex than we thought it was before," she said, but cautioned more research is needed.

The finding contradicts previous studies which suggested that hot flashes and night sweats are associated with increased heart attacks and stroke. While cardiologists are intrigued by, they warn it's too early to fully understand the link. This study should "reassure women who may have been concerned by older studies" about the relationship between menopause symptoms and the increased risk of heart disease, Hayes said.

More than one-third of the women surveyed remembered displaying early menopausal symptoms, hot flashes at the onset of menopause that ended before they enrolled in the study. Just 1,391 women showed late symptoms. About 2.5 percent of women with early symptoms had heart attacks, compared with 3.4 percent of women with no symptoms and 5.5 percent of women with late symptoms.