• Jungeun Park, Mi Kyoung Son, and Hyun-Young Park.
• Division of Population Health Research, Department of Precision Medicine, Korea National Institute of Health, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Cheongju, Korea.
• J. Korean Med. Sci. 2023 Aug 7; 38 (31): e238e238.

BackgroundAdverse lipid profiles are observed in postmenopausal women. However, there is insufficient evidence of the association between lipids and reproductive aging in Korean women. We aimed to characterize lipid changes with respect to timing relative to menopause in Korean middle-aged women.MethodsThis study included 1,436 premenopausal women who had a natural menopause during the follow-up period (median = 15.76 years) from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES) Ansan and Anseong cohort. Lipid levels were measured every 2 years, and the magnitudes of annual lipid changes and differences in the changes by premenopausal body mass index were estimated using piecewise linear mixed-effects models.ResultsAll lipid levels increased greatly from 3 or 5 years before menopause to 1 year after menopause in all women, regardless of their premenopausal body mass index. During the period, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels increased at 0.42 mg/dL per year (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.29 to 0.55 mg/dL). Nevertheless, non-HDL-C levels simultaneously increased at 3.42 mg/dL per year (95% CI, 3.11 to 3.72 mg/dL), and an annual change in the non-HDL-C to HDL-C ratio was 0.05 (95% CI, 0.04 to 0.06). One year after menopause, changes in all lipid parameters significantly slowed down, except for the non-HDL-C to HDL-C ratio (P < 0.001 for all). The ratio continued to increase until 3 years after menopause, but thereafter, the change leveled off.ConclusionWomen experienced remarkable increases in lipid levels during menopausal transition, highlighting the need for early intervention strategies for cardiovascular disease prevention in women.© 2023 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

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