Epidemiology of postmenopausal hypertension

Abstract

Hypertension is more common in younger men than women but this trend is inverted at approximately 60 years of age--thereafter hypertension is more common in women. Menopause's contribution to this phenomenon is complex. Oestrogen deficiency after menopause precipitates a number of factors and these have established the 'menopausal metabolic syndrome' as a concept in postmenopausal women. However, studies have indicated that changes in the prevalence of hypertension, and overall cardiovascular risk profiles in postmenopausal women, might be due to ageing and not oestrogen deficiency. Undoubtedly, there is a strong multicolinearity between the two phenomena. Furthermore, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may reduce age-induced blood pressure increases, thus decreasing cardiovascular risks. However, recent results have questioned HRT's role in cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention in postmenopausal women and trials have unequivocally shown that CVD risk in postmenopausal women with hypertension can be effectively reduced by common antihypertensive drugs.