The influence of early menopause on the hemodynamic responses to isometric exercise

Introduction: Menopause is linked to a heightened risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease and early menopause (EM; age<46yrs) increases this risk. Exaggerated hemodynamic responses to exercise are associated with a greater risk of developing hypertension. Postmenopausal females demonstrate elevated blood pressure (BP) reactivity to isometric exercise compared with premenopausal females. It remains unknown whether these differences are attributable to menopause or age, and how EM influences reactivity. We hypothesized that females who experienced EM would have greater BP and heart rate (HR) reactivity to an isometric handgrip exercise (IHG) compared with typical-age-menopausal females (TAM; age 46-55yrs). Methods: Twenty-two postmenopausal females completed two study visits. Participants were divided into two age-matched groups: EM (n=11) and TAM (n=11). Visit 1 consisted of consent and health questionnaires. Visit 2 consisted of three maximal voluntary contractions of the left hand, three minutes of baseline rest, and IHG at 30% of maximal strength to failure; continuous measurements of HR and BP were collected. Results: Groups were similar in age (EM:60±3; TAM:60±3yrs; p=0.89), BMI (EM:26±1; TAM:24±1kg/m2; p=0.14), maximal voluntary contraction (EM:154±10; TAM:155±8N), but different in menopause duration (EM:20±2: TAM:12±2yrs; p=0.01). There were no differences in resting systolic BP (EM:125±6; TAM:124±4mmHg; p=0.97), diastolic BP (EM:79±3; TAM:75±3mmHg; p=0.45), mean BP (EM:94±3; TAM:92±3mmHg; p=0.79), and HR (EM:61±3; TAM:59±1bpm; p=0.46). During IHG, BP and HR increased similarly in both groups (p>0.05 for all). Conclusion: We have observed that neither duration of menopause nor age of menopause influence BP and HR reactivity during IHG. Although the sample size is low, these data suggest that greater hemodynamic reactivity to isometric exercise does not contribute to cardiovascular disease risk in EM females. This study was supported by a NIH 1 K01 AG064038-01A1 (MLKR), UMN Grant-in-Aid (MLKR), F32HL160012 (EL), and NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences grant UL1TR002494. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.