By Mollie Frost
Accumulating research has shed light on the increased risk of cardiovascular disease for women during the menopause transition, according to Juliana (Jewel) Kling, MD, MPH, FACP, chair of the division of women's health internal medicine at Mayo Clinic Arizona in Phoenix.
"It's important for us to acknowledge that and counsel our menopausal women," she says in the above video.
Dr. Kling offers seven clinical takeaways from recent articles, including an American Heart Association position statement on cardiovascular disease risk during menopause, during her Update in Women's Health at Internal Medicine Meeting 2021: Virtual Experience, available to conference attendees at 8:15 a.m. on Saturday. She will also explore the role of medications in improving breast and sexual health.
For breast cancer prevention, anastrozole has shown long-term effectiveness in women at high-risk of breast cancer (i.e., those with a greater than 20% lifetime risk of breast cancer), says Dr. Kling. During her talk, she offers a look at the data from a randomized controlled trial of the aromatase inhibitor in follow-up post-treatment, which found an overall risk reduction of 49%.
"Importantly, we want to make sure we translate this to data that makes sense clinically for us to use and for our patients," says Dr. Kling. "The number needed to treat to prevent one breast cancer during the first 12 years of follow-up was 29, which is significant."
While testosterone therapy is most often prescribed to men, studies have also looked at the potential benefits and risks of testosterone on women's sexual health. Dr. Kling will review the results in depth, but her bottom line is that "The only evidence-supported indication for the use of testosterone in postmenopausal women is for hypoactive sexual desire disorder," she says. ■