The action of ovarian hormones in cardiovascular disease

Gender-Related Differences in the Relationships Between Blood Pressure, Age, and Body Size in Prepubertal Children

“…The sexual dimorphism of cardiovascular risk factors has been well documented in adults: the prevalence of hypertension is higher in men than in age-matched premenopausal women; 8 similarly, in a cohort of adolescents followed up from 12 to 18 years of age, 9 the risk of developing high systolic BP was higher in boys than in girls. However, differences between genders are no longer apparent at older age: the prevalence of hypertension is rather higher in postmenopausal women than in age-matched men.…”

A comparative study of circulating plasma lipid components and superoxide dismutase activity in pre and postmenopausal women

“…17 Estrogen use is associated with elevation in HDL-C by up to 25% and HDL-C seems to be the best indicator of coronary heart disease risk in women. 18 In the present study serum total cholesterol (TC) and triglycerides (TG) levels showed a significant rise (p <0.001) in postmenopausal women as compared to premenopausal women while serum HDL-Cholesterol levels were lower in postmenopausal women compared to premenopausal women (Table 1), which is in accordance with previous studies by Maturana et al and Alfonso et al 19,20 Increased serum triglycerides levels indicated in our study might be due to estrogen related decrease in activity of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) after the loss of ovarian function as stated by Stevenson et al 9 The average HDL-Cholesterol in women is 55 to 60 mg/dl and a decrease in HDL-Cholesterol of 10mg/dl increases coronary heart disease risk by 40-50 percent.…”

Prevalence of dyslipidemia in adults with cystic fibrosis

“…The gender difference with HDL cholesterol may be explained, at least partially, by the actions of estrogen. Estrogens are known to have profound effects on cholesterol metabolism in the non-CF population [19,20]. Estrogens increase HDL cholesterol by augmenting the secretion of apoA-I and also reduces HDL breakdown by reducing hepatic lipase activity [21].…”