They Say: Pre-eclampsia Now, Heart Problems Later
Posted by Kate Tuttle at 4:00 PM on March 24, 2009
Pre-eclampsia is one of those pregnancy-related health conditions that is cured by delivering the baby. All the dangers — the skyrocketing
blood pressure, the risk of seizures or stroke — melt away once the cord is cut and the infant is out on its own. So even though it’s a very serious, not uncommon malady (occuring in 5% of pregnancies), the doctors who treat a woman once she’s past the baby-having phase typically don’t pay much attention to it, or even understand it well.
All that may soon change. New research suggests that women who experience pre-eclampsia are at higher risk for heart attacks and strokes later in life. And the doctors who study the condition say it’s time for other physicians to take heed. As they point out, pregnancy serves as a kind of natural stress test for the cardiovascular system; women whose bodies have problems in pregnancy, while typically young and healthy now, need to be watched more carefully, and perhaps undertake concerted preventive efforts, to stave off future problems.
From the New York Times article:
That risk is small, but noteworthy. Of 100 women in their mid-40s with a history of normal pregnancy, about 4 would be expected to have a heart attack or stroke some 10 years later, said Dr.
David Williams, an obstetrician at University College London who published an analysis of 25 pre-eclampsia studies in 2007. But the figure rises to 8 in 100 among women with pre-eclampsia, and even more among those who have had it more than once.
Dr. Williams now counsels pre-eclampsia patients to be screened frequently for cholesterol levels, blood sugar and blood pressure, and to consider treatment with medication if the levels are high. But increasing awareness of the link between pre-eclampsia and heart disease remains a challenge. “It’s not readily appreciated by physicians,” Dr. Smith said. “If you ask a cardiologist, they go, ‘I never heard of it.’”
So if you had pre-eclampsia during your pregnancy, is this bad news? Should you resign yourself to a future of heart disease down the road? According to the doctors quoted in the Times article, the reverse is true: consider yourself lucky that you have had the opportunity to learn, early on, that you may be at risk for conditions that you can now work on preventing. In other words, women who’ve lived through pre-eclampsia have been given a gift: a glimpse into one possible future, one they can now avoid.
This is really interesting. As someone who has had pre-eclampsia it’s not really surprising news for me. It seems instinctive now that if the cardiovascular system does this for one set of stressors it could do it for another. I’ve always assumed that it was good reason for me to keep an eye on my blood pressure etc in the future. But anyway, it’s good to know that the information is out there, and that doctors will become increasingly aware of a history of PE as being a potential risk factor.
I don’t know what to think, but I had pre-eclampsia w/ my 1st pregnancy in 1997. In 2009 at the age of 50 with no other significant factors, I had a heart attack out of the blue. I never really had high BP, always had excellent lipids, no diabetes, normal weight, no fam history, have been a lite smoker over the years tho. Very scary.
OOPs! 1st pregnancy was in 1987- not 1997