WOMEN 'S HEALTH AND MENOPAUSE : - National Heart, Lung ...

FIGURE 2–4
Diabetes Mellitus. Estimated Prevalence Among Adults, 2025
Modified with permission from WHO, 1998 1
tive functioning. A critical tenet in aging research,
which is aimed at understanding, modifying, or
preventing age-related morbidity, disability, and
death, is the importance of differentiating changes
due to disease and other pathologic processes from
those attributable to aging per se. To better understand
the etiology of age-related disease in women,
it is important to additionally ascertain the independent
role of menopause and its interaction with
aging. There is little consensus as to the significance
of menopause in healthy aging, and considerable
controversy exists as to the scope of the
physiological and psychological changes surrounding
menopause or presenting later in life that are
attributable to menopause and reduced ovarian
Number of persons (000)
< 5
5–74
75–349
350–1500
>1500
No data available
function. Future advances in preventing and managing
diseases and disorders in middle-aged and
older women will require more careful delineation
of those diseases and disorders that are attributable
to menopause and reduced ovarian hormone levels
versus those diseases that are not. Such advances
are critically needed to clarify ambiguities in the
presentation of age-related disease, to improve
diagnosis and treatment, and to constrain health
care costs.
The most profound and universal alteration in the
mature aging endocrine system occurs in women
and is due to menopause. However, while
menopause is a universal phenomenon in women,
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