PREMATURE OVARIAN FAILURE, ITS CONSEQUENCES, MORTALITY AND IMPACT ON THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM

This review focuses on the topic of premature ovarian failure (POF) as highly relevant in modern medicine (up to 2% of women in the population suffer from this disease). However, patients with premature ovarian failure not only are still not receiving any treatment, but even making this diagnosis is very difficult. Even after a correct diagnosis is made, these patients are not followed up, despite the fact they have already developed a hormonal imbalance. These women develop two groups of complications: short-term complications associated with a rapid estrogen deficiency in the body, and much more dangerous long-term complications affecting multiple organs and even systems. But in the meanwhile, women with premature ovarian failure are under increased risk of death from all causes, in particular from coronary heart disease (CHD), respiratory diseases, genitourinary diseases and from external causes. And this is despite the fact that cardio-vascular diseases (CVD) are already the leading cause of death among women worldwide. It is women with POF that are at the highest risk of development of cardiovascular diseases, compared to women with normal menopause. These patients, therefore, constitute one of the most important groups to be targeted by screening and prevention strategies primarily for cardiovascular diseases. These strategies should include the use of risk stratification tools to identify women that need lifestyle modifying and pharmacological therapy to prevent development of such diseases in them. This is the only way to maintain a high quality of life in these women over the long term.