Vasomotor symptoms in women and cardiovascular risk markers: Systematic review and meta-analysis

• Women with vasomotor symptoms have an unfavorable cardiovascular risk profile compared to women without vasomotor complaints.
• Vasomotor symptoms are positively associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol levels and body mass index.
• There is no association between vasomotor symptoms in women and measures of subclinical atherosclerosis.
• The available studies on vasomotor symptoms and cardiovascular risk markers are generally limited and somewhat diverse.

We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the observational or interventional studies assessing the association of vasomotor symptoms (hot flushes and night sweats) with various cardiovascular risk markers (systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), hypertension, total cholesterol, body mass index (BMI), and measures of subclinical atherosclerosis), in peri-menopausal, menopausal, or postmenopausal women. Eleven unique studies were identified with data available on 19,667 non-overlapping participants. Pooled analysis showed that women with hot flushes, compared to those without, tended to have significant higher levels of SBP (mean difference (MD): 1.95 mmHg (95%CI, 0.27 to 33.63)), and DBP (MD 1.17 mmHg (95%CI, −0.21 to 2.54)) and higher odds of having hypertension (OR: 1.18, 95%CI: 0.93 to 1.51), albeit non-significant. Similarly, women who reported night sweats compared to those who did not, had significant higher levels of SBP, (MD: 1.33 mmHg (95%CI, 0.63 to 2.03)), DBP (MD: 0.55 mmHg (95%CI, 0.19 to 0.91)), total cholesterol (MD: 0.17 mmHg (95%CI, 0.03 to 0.31)) and BMI (MD: 0.64 mmHg (95%CI, 0.47 to 0.80)). Vasomotor symptoms in women were not associated with measures of subclinical atherosclerosis. Women with vasomotor symptoms may have an unfavorable cardiovascular risk profile compared to women without vasomotor complaints.