BACKGROUND Early onset of menopause is a risk factor for several health problems. The objective was primarily to investigate the association between early menopause and current, past active and passive smoking. A second aim was to investigate the association between coffee and alcohol consumption and early menopause. METHODS The present population-based cross-sectional study included a sub-sa...

Despite extensive research on obesity and breast cancer in recent decades, inconsistencies in the literature exist. The authors examined prospectively the relation between adult relative weight (weight (kg)/height (m)1.5) and breast cancer risk in a cohort of 54,896 women aged 31-89 years who had previously participated in the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project. During a mean follow-...

In 1981, Sullivan suggested that a state of iron depletion (ie, reduced iron stores without anemia) was potentially protective against coronary heart disease (CHD).1 This original “iron hypothesis” was an attempt to explain the known sex difference in cardiovascular (CV) risk and the subsequent loss of the protective effect of female gender with menopause. This initial hypothesis was based in p...

Leydig cell tumors of the ovary account for less than 0.1% of all ovarian tumors (1). We present two cases in which patients had markedly elevated serum testosterone levels and frank hirsutism. Both cases revealed right ovarian Leydig cell tumors upon oophorectomy with post-surgical resolution of hypertestosteronemia. While rare and difficult to diagnose, androgen secreting tumors should be sus...

Information was collected by mail survey about myocardial infarction (MI), use of female hormones after menopause, and coronary risk factors 121,964 registered nurses ages 30-55 years. One hundred twenty-three women with a known type of prior menopause reported hospitalization for MI. Overall, use of female hormones by these women was very similar to that of control women matched for age and ty...

The effects of high-sodium (HS) and normal-sodium (NS) diets on ovarian hormone modulation of mean arterial pressure (MAP) were examined in Dahl salt-resistant (DR) and salt-sensitive (DS) rats. Ovariectomy increased MAP (OVX-Sham) to a greater extent in DS rats maintained for 2 wk on a HS (22 mmHg) compared with a NS (6 mmHg) diet. Ovariectomy had no effect on MAP in DR rats on NS but did incr...

Postmenopausal estrogen deficiency increases the incidence of cerebrovascular disease. However, hormone replacement therapy is associated with an increased cardiovascular risk. Tamoxifen is a selective estrogen receptor modulator with estrogenic effects on cardiovascular risk factors, but its long-term impacts on cerebral vasculature are unknown. We hypothesized that chronic 17beta-estradiol or...

Age at menopause is an important epidemiologic characteristic whose reliability of reporting in the US population is not known. The authors examined four hypotheses about the reliability of reported age at menopause in the United States: 1) women with hysterectomy-induced menopause more reliably report their age at menopause than women who have undergone natural menopause; 2) reliability declin...

Breast cancer probably consists of a spectrum of diseases in terms of its hormonal dependence, as evidenced by the responses of patients to endocrine therapy. It is generally assumed that hormone-dependent breast cancers, which me spond to ovariectomy, would also respond to antiestrogen therapy. Studies in humans indicate a good correlation be tween the presence of estrogen receptor and respons...