Earlier menopause puts women at greater risk of heart failure, study shows

Women who have never given birth also have higher risk, pointing to importance of reproductive factors in cardiovascular health, say researchers

Women who start the menopause earlier have a greater risk of being taken to hospital with heart failure, researchers have found.

The US-based study also revealed that women who have never given birth have more than a two-fold increase in the risk of a common type of the condition, known as diastolic heart failure, compared with women who have children.