Hypertension accounts for 1 in 5 deaths among American women, and its effective treatment and control improves cardiovascular outcomes across all phases of life.
This review highlights the specific characteristics and management of hypertension in women across their lifespan, emphasizing that effective control improves cardiovascular outcomes.
Hypertension accounts for 1 in 5 deaths among American women, posing a greater burden for women than men, and is among their most important risk factors for death, development of cardiovascular and other diseases. Hypertension affects women in all phases of life, with specific characteristics relating to risk factors and management for primary prevention of hypertension in teenage and young adult women, hypertension in pregnancy, use of oral contraceptives and assisted reproductive technologies, pregnancy, lactation, menopause, hormone replacement, hypertension in elderly women, and issues of race and ethnicity. All are detailed in this review, as is information relative to women in clinical trials of hypertension and medication issues. The overarching message is that effective treatment and control of hypertension improves cardiovascular outcomes. But many knowledge gaps persist, including the contribution of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy to cardiovascular disease risk, role of hormone replacement, blood pressure targets for elderly women, etc.
“Sex differences in blood pressure may offer a clue with regard to selecting therapeutic interventions that are best for the variations of cardiovascular disease that affect women most commonly.”
Wenger et al. (Sun,) conducted a review in Hypertension. Hypertension was evaluated. Hypertension accounts for 1 in 5 deaths among American women, and its effective treatment and control improves cardiovascular outcomes across all phases of life.
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