Cardiovascular Health Across and Beyond the Reproductive Lifespan

This book is the first authoritative and comprehensive volume examining cardiovascular health in women across the reproductive lifespan and beyond. It provides an up to date, in depth, and highly illustrated examination of the unique contributions of reproductive events in a woman’s life on both her short-term and long-term cardiometabolic and cardiovascular health. Chapters 1-6 will discuss the early years, starting with menarche and move to infertility and early and premature menopause. Chapters 7-14 will then focus on the transition to menopause and its impact on women's cardiovascular health. Key chapters will discuss the effect of hormone therapies like menopausal hormone therapy and contraceptive hormone therapy on CVD. The book will conclude with CVD risk for post-menopausal women and future directions. 

Cardiovascular Health Across and Beyond the Reproductive Lifespan is an essential resource for physicians, residents, fellows, and medical students in cardiology, endocrinology, primary care, and health promotion and disease prevention.

Emily S. Lau, MD, MPH is  women’s cardiovascular health specialist and Co-Director of the Women’s Heart Health program at Mass General Brigham in Boston, MA, as well as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lau is a leading clinical-translational physician investigator focused on understanding how biologic sex differences and female-specific risk factors contribute to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease uniquely in women. Dr. Lau has national leadership roles in the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, and The Menopause Society. Her research, funded by the NIH and American Heart Association, applies innovative methods including multi-dimensional molecular profiling, imaging, exercise physiology, and data science to advance the mechanistic understanding of women’s cardiovascular health and disease.

 Chrisandra L. Shufelt, MD, MS is Professor and Chair of the Division of General Internal Medicine, and Consultantat in the Mayo Clinic Menopause Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. She is also the Associate Director of the Women’s Health Research Center for the Mayo ClinicEnterprise. Dr. Shufelt is a leading expert in women’s health, menopause, and vascular biology. She has had several National and International leadership roles in the American College of Physicians, the European Menopause and Andropause Society, and The Menopause Society where she was past-President of the Society (2021-2022) and currently on the board of trustees. Dr. Shufelt has over 200 publications in women’s health and has co-authored several scientific position statements on menopause and hormone therapy. Her NIH-funded research focuses on young women with functional hypothalamic amenorrhea evaluating the impact of immune and vascular health.

An estimated 6,000 U.S. women reach menopause every day (over 2 million per year). An average of 27 million women between the ages of 45 and 64, or 20% of the American workforce, experience menopause each year.