Could androgens protect middle-aged women from cardiovascular events? A population-based study of Swedish women: The Women's Health in the Lund Area (WHILA) Study

Objective The aim of this analysis was to delineate perceived associations between androgens and cardiovascular events in perimenopausal women. Design A cross-sectional, population-based study of 6440 perimenopausal women aged 50-59 years, living in Southern Sweden. In all, 461 (7.1%) women were premenopausal (PM), 3328 (51.7%) postmenopausal without hormone therapy (HT) (PMO) and 2651 (41.2%) postmenopausal with HT (PMT). For further comparisons, 104 women (1.6%) who reported cardiovascular disease (CVD) were studied in detail; 49 had had a myocardial infarction, 49 a stroke and six women both events. For each woman with CVD, two matched controls were selected (n = 208). Results In the matched controlled series, androstenedione levels were lower (p < 0.005) in cases. Cases with hormone therapy had also lower testosterone levels than matched controls (p = 0.05). In the total cohort, by using multiple logistic regression analyses, testosterone was positively associated with low density lipoprotem cholesterol (p < 0.001) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (p < 0.001) in all women, but negatively associated with levels of triglycerides in both the PMO (p < 0.001) and PMT (p < 0.001) groups. Androstenedione levels were positively associated with HDL-C (p < 0.05) and negatively with triglycerides (p < 0.05) in the PM group. Conclusion Women with cardiovascular disease had lower serum androgen levels, particularly women using hormone replacement therapy, even when controlled for lipids and other potential risk factors.