Study into impact of menopause on heart health

A study that aims to transform heart disease prevention and care for women around the world has been awarded US $10 million by a global collaboration of major cardiovascular disease research funders, including the British Heart Foundation.

The research seeks to advance understanding of how menopause shapes heart health. The funding will also support the team to launch the largest clinical trial of its kind to detect silent changes in arteries, and test whether earlier prevention can stop or even reverse their progression.

There are 2.3 million people in the UK living with coronary heart disease (CHD), including more than 800,000 women. One in 15 women die from CHD - more than twice as many women as die from breast cancer.

The SHE-HEALS study, led by BHF Professor Ziad Mallat at the University of Cambridge and Professor Martha Hickey at the University of Melbourne, will use cutting edge techniques to discover the changes in arteries that start during perimenopause and drive increasing heart disease risk.

As part of this work, the team will also investigate how age at menopause affects heart disease risk, and whether taking HRT impacts this risk.

The researchers believe that current guidelines miss a vital window for earlier prevention in women.

By spotting the early signs of disease before symptoms appear, the study will test whether early prevention, including targeting key risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, can stop or even reverse progression of atherosclerosis.

Catch up with CVD in women: overlooked, underdetected, and undertreated, Practice Nurse 2026;56(1):13-17