Occurrence of pregnancy, abortion, and artificial menopause among women with coronary artery disease: a preliminary study.

Abstract 1. 1. An analysis of the age-sex-specific mortality rates from arteriosclerotic heart disease, including coronary disease, on a semilogarithmic scale, indicated that prior to 40 to 45 years of age the male slope was greater than that of the female. After this age, the ratio of these two slopes decreased. This was interpreted as being a result of endocrine changes that occur at this period of life. 2. 2. Fifty female patients with clinically confirmed myocardial infarction have been compared with 50 paired controls and 149 probability sample controls with respect to pregnancy, live birth, stillbirth, abortion, and artificial menopause experience. 3. 3. Patients had an excess of abortion, total pregnancies, and artificial menopause. The excess abortion and artificial menopause experience of patients was interpreted as being consistent with the hypothesis that endocrine factors play an etiologic role in coronary heart disease. In interpreting the results in this manner, emphasis was placed on the consistency of the pattern of the observations. The excess of total pregnancies among patients was interpreted as an effort to compensate for excess fetal loss due to abortions.