Investigators from the National Inst. of Health have reported online in ‘The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism’ that women should get their cholesterol levels screened according to their menstruation cycle for deriving precise outcomes.

The research showed that total blood cholesterol levels showed variation by nearly twenty percent over the span of a woman’s menstruation cycle. This observation was particularly more apparent in over forty year old females with obesity issues.

One of the researchers, Doctor S.L. Mumford from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Inst. of Child Health and Human Development, Rockville stated that their study noted peak levels of blood cholesterol in the initial half of the menstruation cycle and then post-ovulation the levels began to ebb. Mumford further advised all women to get their cholesterol levels tested at the analogous phase of their menstruation cycle every month.

Therapy conclusions must then be made on the basis of the most precise reading.

Estrogen and its effects on Blood Cholesterol levels

Study investigators did measurements of the amounts of estrogen (female sex hormone), triglyceride (blood fat) levels, cholesterol among over 250 females in good health in the age band of eighteen to forty-four years old. They then carried out sixteen measurements in these females that spanned across duo menstruation cycles. Study entrants additionally began self-charting their ovulation employing D.I.Y fertility testing.

The rise in estrogen level also translated to an augment in HDL cholesterol or good cholesterol levels which peaked during ovulation. The total cholesterol, triglyceride and LDL or detrimental cholesterol levels plummeted as the levels of estrogen shot up. Estrogen is believed to prevent cardiovascular disease due to which post-menopausal women are at an elevated risk since their innate estrogen supply reduces.

Elevated cholesterol levels are an identified cardiovascular ailment risk factor. Total cholesterol level of below two hundred mg/ dL is deemed ideal and cholesterol levels in-between two hundred and 239 milligrams/decilitre of blood is deemed border line elevated. Total cholesterol reading of 240 milligrams/ decilitre of blood or more is deemed elevated as per guidelines provided by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Inst.

Merely five percent of females had constantly a reading of above two hundred milligrams/ dL during all research visitations; however levels of blood cholesterol in over nineteen percent of females touched two hundred mg per dL during at least a single visit.

Cholesterol Screens for Females

The usual cholesterol screening is done by many clinicians during dawn in fasting, but in the light of this study finding, another layering is possibly needed like in which phase of the menstruation cycle the women are in. Study investigators have pointed out that when cholesterol screening tests are not timed in accordance to the menstrual cycle then it could translate to females being over-treated and needlessly augmenting their risk of medication related side-effects and expenses.

These study outcomes are enthralling and vital which indicates tailoring therapy decisions for women. It also points to further proof that males could not be used as norms when creating cut-off and standard of care and females need to be studied directly.