Honigberg MC, Zekavat SM, Aragam K, et al. - In women with natural and surgical menopause before age 40 years, researchers studied the development of cardiovascular diseases and cardiovascular risk factors. Of the 144,260 women who were postmenopausal (mean [SD] age at enrollment, 59.9 [5.4] years), 4,904 had natural premature menopause and 644 had surgical premature menopause. According to results, premature menopause was significantly associated with increased risk of composite outcome compared with no premature menopause, including coronary artery disease, heart failure, aortic stenosis, mitral regurgitation, atrial fibrillation, ischemic stroke, peripheral artery disease, and venous thromboembolism. Data reported that the hazard ratio was 1.36 for natural premature menopause and 1.87 for surgical premature menopause. An increased risk for a composite of cardiovascular diseases may be associated with natural and surgical premature menopause.