"SWAN is compiling the most comprehensive characterization to date of the health of women from premenopause to postmenopause in a community-based sample."

The Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) study is a multicenter, multiethnic longitudinal study designed to characterize a number of physiologic, psychosocial and behavioral changes that occur during the menopausal transition and to observe their effects on subsequent health and risk factors for age-related diseases. A total of 3302 women were enrolled at seven clinical sites in the latter half of the 1990s. At the time of enrollment, women were pre- or early peri-menopausal, not taking hormones, and between 42 and 52 years of age. They were followed annually for 10 years, and then every other year. SWAN has a multidisciplinary focus and thus has repeated measures of bone health, cardiovascular risk factors, psychosocial factors and ovarian hormones. SWAN is compiling the most comprehensive characterization to date of the health of women from premenopause to postmenopause in a community-based sample. It is now poised to study the effects of these menopause-related changes