Shutterstock.com
Interventions to reduce blood pressure may help to improve reproductive outcomes in healthy young women, research has found[1]
.
In a paper published in Hypertension (2 April 2018), researchers used data from a trial of aspirin on reproductive outcomes to study preconception blood pressure in 1,228 women with a history of pregnancy loss who were trying to get pregnant.
The researchers found no clear link between blood pressure and time to pregnancy or live birth rate. However, each 10mmHg increase in preconception diastolic blood pressure was associated with an 18% increase in the risk of pregnancy loss and each 10mmHg increase in preconception mean arterial pressure was associated with a 17% increase.
“Our findings do suggest that preconception blood pressure is a marker of increased risk of pregnancy loss, independent of age, [body mass index], and other risk factors, and add to the evidence base suggesting that early markers of cardiometabolic risk may be associated with adverse reproductive events,” said the researchers.
References
[1] Nobles C, Mendola P, Mumford S et al. Preconception blood pressure levels and reproductive outcomes in a prospective cohort of women attempting pregnancy. Hypertension 2018;74:904–910. doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.117.10705
