Dr. Mary Claire Haver

I was like shocked when I didn't see high cholesterol.

And then I start digging and realizing, my gosh, you can expect your LDL to go up 20% across the menopause transition.

And I'm not talking about patients who have a familial hypercholesterolemia, have been dealing with cholesterol most of their lives.

I'm talking about women who had stone cold, normal cholesterol levels, who all of a sudden, with no changes in diet and exercise, nothing has happened except they've entered the menopause chat

and their lipids are starting to change.

Triglycerides go up, HDL can drop, not as much as LDL goes up, but all of these will make you more vulnerable to atherosclerotic disease.

I told my doctor about my symptoms and she said, it's probably just stress or that's just part of getting older.

Why does this keep happening to women?

So what I think you're asking is why is it that you go to a board certified family practitioner, internal medicine doctor, OBGYN, whoever your primary care doctor or clinician is and

And you are presenting with this constellation of blood work, constellation of your symptoms, and they aren't able to connect the dots.

This is not the fault of an individual doctor.

It would be way easier to dismiss this and to say they just don't care.

They're just being a jerk.

But this is actually a severe systemic problem of we have not prioritized women's health

After reproduction ends, we are not teaching on a large-scale basis all of these doctors who are charged with your healthcare how menopause affects.

A woman, maybe your OBGYN will understand what's going on with your cycle irregularity and hot flashes.

Most docs will get that.

A bunch of hot flashes, your cycle's becoming irregular.

Most doctors will be able to say, okay, menopause.

However, your cholesterol, your anxiety, your joint pain, your sleep disruption, your weight changes, your new belly fat,