Reproductive History May Improve Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Women
Reproductive History May Improve Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Women
Source: American Journal of Preventive Cardiology, June 2026; reported by TCTMD, June 26, 2026.
• A woman’s reproductive history may provide important clues to her future cardiovascular risk and should complement traditional risk assessment.
• Factors associated with higher risk of early myocardial infarction (MI) included:
* Menarche before age 11 years.
* Postmenopausal status.
* Gestational diabetes.
* Previous female hormone therapy (mainly menopausal hormone therapy; excluding contraceptives and infertility treatment).
* Oral contraceptive use for 1–5 years was also associated with higher early MI risk; however, this was an observational association, not proof of causation, and details on contraceptive type, dose, and timing were unavailable.
• Factors associated with lower early MI risk included:
* Breastfeeding for ≥1 month, supporting previous evidence that lactation may improve long-term cardiometabolic health.
• Pregnancy complications-especially gestational diabetes & hypertension-identify women at increased future cardiovascular risk.
• Authors recommend routinely documenting age at menarche, pregnancy complications, breastfeeding history, menopause, and hormone therapy as part of cardiovascular risk assessment to enable earlier prevention.
https://www.tctmd.com/news/reproductive-history-may-inform-cv-prevention-strategies-women
