Women who enter natural menopause before age 40 face roughly 40 percent higher lifetime risk of coronary heart disease. That is the finding of a cohort study published Tuesday in JAMA Cardiology, drawing on data from more than 10,000 women tracked over decades. [1]

The disparity is worse than the headline. Black women are three times more likely than white women to experience premature menopause — and faced a 41 percent increase in lifetime heart risk compared to 39 percent for white women. [2] The researchers, led by a team at Northwestern University, controlled for traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Premature menopause was an independent predictor. [3]

This matters because menopause has historically been siloed as a reproductive health issue, not a cardiac one. Cardiologists do not routinely ask when a patient's periods stopped. The study argues they should. STAT News noted the finding arrives as scientists still cannot fully explain why early estrogen loss accelerates arterial damage. [4] The mechanism is unclear. The math is not.

-- PRIYA SHARMA, Mumbai