Prospective study of blood and tibia lead in women undergoing surgical menopause.
Despite the dramatic decline in environmental lead exposure in the United States during the past couple of decades, concern has been expressed regarding mobilization during menopause of existing lead stored in bone. To investigate whether bone lead concentrations decrease and blood lead levels increase, we conducted a prospective study of 91 women who were scheduled to undergo a bilateral oophorectomy for a benign condition at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City during October 1994 through April 1999. We excluded women who were younger than 30 years of age or who were postmenopausal at the time of the surgery. We observed a small but significant increase in median blood lead levels between the baseline visit and the 6-month visit (0.4 microg/dL, p<0.0001), particularly for women who were not on estrogen replacement therapy (0.7 microg/dL, p=0.008). No significant change was observed in blood lead values between 6 and 18 months postsurgery, nor was there evidence of significant changes in tibia lead concentrations during the follow-up period. These findings do not point to substantial mobilization of lead from cortical bone during menopause.
Berkowitz
Gertrud S
GS
Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA. trudy.berkowitz@mssm.edu
Wolff
Mary S
MS
Lapinski
Robert H
RH
Todd
Andrew C
AC
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007854:Lead / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood*; D008593:Menopause / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010052:Ovariectomy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013977:Tibia / Q000737:chemistry
D007854:Lead