A 45-year-old patient of mine had borderline high LDL cholesterol — the so-called “bad” cholesterol — at around 130 mg/dL. With aggressive lifestyle changes, she managed to bring it down to 100 mg/dL at first and then lower. A few years later, following menopause, she came to see me again as her LDL shot up to a high 170 mg/dL. This time, I had to put her on cholesterol-lowering medication alongside lifestyle changes, including regular exercise, better sleep, weight management and diet.

The case illustrates a concern that can catch women off guard: bad cholesterol levels can change significantly around menopause, even when there has been no previous diagnosis of heart disease. Women often do not realise that menopause can be an important turning point for their heart health, a key message from a new series of three scientific papers published in Circulation.…