This Article Free upon publication Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 51/4/952    most recent HYPERTENSIONAHA.107.105742v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Coylewright, M. Articles by Ouyang, P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Coylewright, M. Articles by Ouyang, P. Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information High Blood Pressure Menopause Seniors' Health Related Collections Clinical Studies Other etiology

(Hypertension. 2008;51:952.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.

Go Red Brief Reviews

Menopause and Hypertension

An Age-Old Debate

From the Department of Medicine (M.C., P.O.), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md; and Physiology and Biophysics (J.F.R.), University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson.

Correspondence to Pamela Ouyang MBBS, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, 4940 Eastern Ave, Baltimore, MD 21224. E-mail pouyang@jhmi.edu

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 
Premenopausal women (pre-MW) have lower blood pressure (BP) than age-matched men, and women have higher rates of hypertension than men as they age.¹ These findings suggest that gender or sex hormones have a prominent role in hypertension. Determining the role of sex hormones in the pathogenesis or progression of hypertension is complex given the effects of aging on the cardiovascular system and its relationship to other powerful risk factors such as body weight and cholesterol level.² Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies report conflicting results concerning the role of menopause in the pathogenesis of hypertension. Large randomized trials of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) have called into question the long assumed protective effect of estrogen in heart disease risk.^3,4 There are excellent reviews on the effects of gender and sex hormones on vascular tone and pathophysiologic abnormalities associated with hypertension in animals.^5,6 This review focuses on studies in postmenopausal women (PMW), the relationship between menopause and hypertension, factors contributing to hypertension in PMW, and discussion of identification and treatment of hypertension in PMW.

	Relationship Between Gender, Menopause, and Hypertension

 
Studies Indicating Menopause Leads to Increasing Hypertension
Cross-sectional studies suggest a relationship between menopause and both hypertension and serum cholesterol⁷ (Table). Both systolic and diastolic BP are reported to be related to menopause independent of age, body mass index (BMI), pulse rate, and HRT, and PMW had greater odds of being hypertensive than pre-MW (OR 2.2, P=0.03).⁸ In addition, the association between BP and age is steeper in PMW.

. . . [Full Text of this Article]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Barton and M. R. Meyer Postmenopausal Hypertension: Mechanisms and Therapy Hypertension, July 1, 2009; 54(1): 11 - 18. [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Oparil Hormone Therapy of Premature Ovarian Failure: The Case for "Natural" Estrogen Hypertension, May 1, 2009; 53(5): 745 - 746. [Full Text] [PDF]