(08) 87231297
Over the past few years, more and more science has focused on women’s heart health, in part because it has not yet been given its’ full due. One of the areas of increasing concern is for women who have had hypertension (high blood pressure) and/or pre-eclampsia in a pregnancy. Gestational i.e. pregnancy hypertension and pre-eclampsia are now recognised as risk factors for multiple chronic diseases.
Having had gestational hypertension increases a woman’s risk of developing chronic kidney disease 5-10 times more than a woman that didn’t have it. Her risk of long-term hypertension is increased by 3-4 times, and heart disease is 2 – 2.5 times more than her peers. This, of course, then leads to increased risk of other things like stroke, and dementia. Pre-eclampsia, which can sometimes follow on from gestational hypertension, increases a woman’s risk of heart disease all on its own, to the point where we are seeing women in their 40s develop arterial calcifications that would normally be seen by women in their 50s.
These risks are, of course, impacted by other matters such as smoking, poor diet, and obesity.
Overall, women who have had hypertension in pregnancy, especially if they also developed pre-eclampsia, need to be taking care of their heart health much sooner than their peers. If you are 40 years old or more, and had pre-eclampsia or hypertension in one of your pregnancies, you should consider an annual heart health check.
