February is Heart Awareness Month, and we're introducing MERCI (Menopause Early Risk of Cardiovascular Impact), new work within LUCI focused on identifying early, often subtle cardiovascular changes that can emerge during perimenopause.
Why This Matters
100% of women will experience menopause. And cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death globally among women.
While much attention is placed on cardiovascular risk later in life, important physiologic signals often begin earlier, during perimenopause, long before traditional thresholds are reached. By the time post-menopause arrives, when cardiovascular disease becomes more prevalent, critical patterns may have already been developing for years.
The Goal: Visibility, Not Diagnosis
MERCI was conceptualized last year during our observational collaboration with the Mayo Clinic Platform, and design work has continued for nearly eight months. It remains in design verification today, shaped by learning alongside cardiologists and informed by how cardiovascular risk is evaluated, including ASCVD assessment.
The goal of MERCI is not diagnosis. It's visibility.
By observing early physiologic patterns associated with cardiovascular change during perimenopause, we aim to better understand how risk begins to evolve before post-menopause, when the consequences become harder to reverse.
From Delayed Reaction to Earlier Intervention
Continuous real-world health signals can help reduce time to recognition and support more timely treatment adjustments. Within this context, MERCI is designed to provide practitioners with timely notifications when meaningful cardiovascular patterns begin to emerge, helping shift care from delayed reaction toward earlier, more informed intervention.
Understanding the Menopause-Cardiovascular Connection
The relationship between the menopause transition and cardiovascular risk is well-documented but often under-addressed in clinical practice. MERCI represents our commitment to seeing cardiovascular health in women earlier, understanding it more deeply, and supporting prevention across the menopause journey.
This Heart Awareness Month, we're reminded that earlier visibility can change outcomes. MERCI is how we're working to make that happen.