Iron and Menopause: Does Increased Iron Affect the Health of Postmenopausal Women?, 2009

"...Conclusions and Open Questions
Today, although considerable scientific data are available on the natural biologic and pathologic processes that could affect women's health, substantial gaps in knowledge remain. Efforts have been made to understand the effects of female sex hormones on cellular and organ systems in relation to women's health and disease. As illustrated in Fig. 2, the natural biologic system in young women is high estrogen and low iron The reverse is true in older women: low estrogen and high iron. Could an increase in iron levels as a result of menopause be a risk factor that affects women's health? Increased iron could lead to oxidative stress and sensitize the skin to UV exposure. Urinary levels of 8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine, a marker of oxidative DNA adducts, has been shown to increase with serum ferritin levels in men and women (26). Because iron is a growth nutrient, increased iron could also increase proliferation of osteoblast progenitors without differentiation to mature osteoblasts and thus, slow bone formation. An increase in iron is observed in men during their adolescent years (age 18–30 years) (45), and men do not seem to be immune to the pathologic effects of iron increase (16, 43, 44). The greater incidence of heart disease in men, as well as in postmenopausal women, when compared with the incidence in premenopausal women, has been attributed to higher levels of stored iron in these two groups (38). Yet important differences exist between men and postmenopausal women in terms of timing and patterns of changes in hormone and iron levels. First, iron increase in men happens in conjunction with the increase of male sex hormones (24, 45), which could provide protection against the harmful effects of the increased iron. Nevertheless, iron increase in women occurs during their midlife (age 42–51 years) at the same time as female sex hormones are decreased. Therefore, the combined effects of increased iron and estrogen deficiency could greatly affect on women's health. Second, it is important to recognize that men and women inherit differently, and thus it is difficult to compare them from the start. Therefore, the observation of increased iron at early age in men accompanied by a lower incidence of osteoporosis should not hinder us from investigating the role of increased iron in menopause. Considering that current menopausal research and treatments focus mainly on ovarian hormones and their receptors, indicting increased iron as a risk factor in menopause-related diseases is more complex, yet more realistic, and worth further investigation...."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2821138/