Abstract
Objective: To estimate the frequency of metabolic syndrome (MetS) among apparently healthy pre and post-menopausal women and association of hematological parameters with the risk factors of MetS like cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes mellitus type 2 in pre and post-menopausal women.
Methodology: This comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in Department of Physiology, University of Sindh with collaboration of LUH (Liaquat University Hospital and Diagnostic & Research, (DR) Laboratory LUMHS on 137 participants purposively selected who underwent a general health examination attending LUH OPD & private clinic, without MetS knowledge. Females between 25 to 65 years of age, who were not taking any medication, with previous history of regular menstrual cycle (premenopausal women) & who underwent natural menopause (post-menopausal women) were included in the study.
Results: We found 59.9% prevalence of MetS, higher in post-menopausal compared to pre-menopausal subjects. The distribution of individual risk components of MetS were statistically highly significant in post-menopausal subjects (p<0.05). Systolic BP ≥130 mmHg was the least documented risk element in pre-menopausal subjects; while triglyceride levels ≥150 mg/dl was the least risk element for MetS in post-menopausal women.
Conclusion: Hematological parameters (RBC, WBC, Hb levels) can be used for the early detection of MetS in individuals with high risk, along with, individual risk components these can be used for better diagnosis of non-communicable diseases such as CVD and T2DM.

Key words: Metabolic syndrome, pre-menopause, post-menopause, hematological parameters, MetS.