Research
Hormonal
Postmenopausal women have a higher prevalence of NAFLD than premenopausal women, and this risk is independently associated with menopause status even after adjusting for metabolic factors in some studies.
After menopause, your risk of fatty liver disease increases significantly, even if you maintain a healthy weight. This is largely due to the loss of estrogen. Regular liver health monitoring is recommended for postmenopausal women.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
the prevalence of NAFLD in women rises after the age of 50 years, peaks at 60–69 years... postmenopausal status was associated with an increased risk of incident NAFLD at univariate but not at multivariate analysis adjusted for age, metabolic syndrome, and weight gain
Why this rating
Supported by multiple longitudinal and cross-sectional studies cited in the review.
Source
NAFLD as a Sexual Dimorphic Disease: Role of Gender and Reproductive Status in the Development and Progression of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Inherent Cardiovascular Risk
Stefano Ballestri et al. · Advances in Therapy · 2017
DOI 10.1007/s12325-017-0556-1
narrative_reviewCited 551×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Premenopausal women are protected from developing NAFLD due to estrogen-mediated partitioning of fatty acids toward ketone body production and sex-specific browning of white adipose tissue, whereas postmenopausal estrogen deficiency facilitates massive hepatic steatosis and fibrotic progression.Good
- Early menarche is associated with an increased risk of NAFLD in adulthood, primarily driven by excess adiposity rather than estrogen activation itself.Moderate
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