Family history of premature MI (FHPMI) in women with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO) modifies the increased mortality associated with heart disease and cardiovascular disease in those women, according to an analysis published in Menopause.
Duke Appiah, PhD, of the department of public health at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, and colleagues drew data for 4,066 postmenopausal women aged 40 years and older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (1988-1994). Women were excluded if they had partial or unilateral oophorectomy; unknown or missing age at menopause; or prevalent MI, stroke, or heart failure, which left a sample of 2,763 women for the analysis.
Women with BSO were considered postmenopausal if they had not experienced a menstrual period within the previous 12 months. Women were asked whether any blood relatives, and especially any first-degree relatives, had a heart attack before age 50 years, which was considered premature MI. The average age at baseline was 62 years. Of those 2,763 women, 610 women had BSO, 338 had FHPMI, and 95 had both, which yields weighted proportions of 24%, 15%, and 5%, respectively.
When compared with having neither factor, presence of any FHPMI was modestly associated with increased risk of mortality from heart disease (HD), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and all causes in the multivariable adjusted analysis, and having undergone BSO was not significantly associated with any of those on its own. However, the combination of those two factors yielded much higher multivariable adjusted hazard ratios – HD mortality, 2.88; CVD mortality, 2.05; and all-cause mortality, 1.58.
These multivariable adjusted HRs were even more dramatic with first-degree FHPMI and BSO: 3.51 for HD mortality, 2.55 for CVD mortality, and 1.63 for all-cause mortality.
In the women who had the combination of FHPMI and BSO, the elevated risks of HD, CVD, and all-cause mortality “were stronger in women who underwent BSO before the age of 45 years than among those who had this procedure at or after the age of 45 years,” reported Dr. Appiah and colleagues. A significantly elevated risk of HD, CVD, or all-cause mortality was not evident in women with BSO alone “regardless of age at surgery.”
“This study provides additional evidence that removal of the ovaries before the natural age of menopause is associated with multiple adverse long-term health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease and early mortality and should be strongly discouraged in women who are not at increased genetic risk for ovarian cancer,” Stephanie Faubion, MD, medical director of North American of Menopause Science, commented in a press release. She was not involved in the study.
Limitations of the study include how FHPMI was self-reported; however, the investigators suggested that, given findings of other research regarding reporting family history (Genet Epidemiol. 1999;17:141-50), the true rate may actually have been underreported. The investigators cited the large, population-based sample size as one of the study’s strengths, suggesting it helps make the findings generalizable.
The investigators disclosed no external funding or conflicts of interest.
SOURCE: Appiah D et al. Menopause. 2020 Feb. doi: 10.1097/GME.0000000000001522.