Effect of menopause and sex hormone on plasma lipids in elder women

Plasma cholesterol （TC）, triglyceride （TG）, high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol（HDL-C）, low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol（LDL-C） and estradiol （E₂）, testosterone（T）, follicle-stimulating hormone （FSH）, luteinizing hormone （LH）, prolactin （PRL） were determined in 107 cases of perimenopausal Chinese healthy women. TC, TG, LDL-C were found to be increased and HDL-C decreased significantly after menopause （P＜0.01）. Postmenopausal women also showed rapid decrease in E₂, abrupt increase in FSH, LH, and slight decrease in PRL （P＜0.01）, but no significat change in T（P＞0.05）. The changes in lipids and E₂ were correlated with the style and age when menopause appears, and the effect of surgical menopause is greater than that of natural one. Only E₂ showed correlation with lipids, and the correlation coefficient of E₂ with TC, LDL-C, HDL-C were -0.44, -0.54, 0.43 respectively （P＜0.001）. The study suggests that the postmenopausal change of lipids is due to decrease in E₂, and ovaries should be preserved, whenever possible, if perimenopausal women receive pelvic operation.