Reproductive Landmarks and Lipedema: Lessons to be Learned about Women Hormones throughout Life

Abstract

Lipedema is an old disease that just recently is being reconized and causes huge interest. Because it eminently affects women, its pathophysiology has always been related to estradiol. Understanding the mechanisms that start the disease and make it progress throughout life points toward that it is a disease related to women's reproductive milestones: menarch, pregnancy and menopause. But what is common in women's reproductive milestones that places them at a greater risk of developing Lipedema? Menarch, pregnancy and menopause are phases of a woman's life that have little similarity from the hormonal point of view: where in one, the estrogens are high, and in the other, they are low; where in one, the FSH/LH is low, and in another, those levels may be strictly high. The proposal of this chapter also includes the impact of hormonal metabolomics in adipose tissue and adipocyte intracrinology to women's health throughout her reproductive life.