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INTRODUCTION
Hypertension is among the leading causes of illness and death in The Bahamas: 3rdin males and 1stin females. Globally, hypertension is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and premature death. A deeper look into hypertension prevalence in women revealed an increase in blood pressure in women in their early 50’s (premenopausal) and those in full menopause.
The purpose of this paper is to establish which factors contribute to hypertension during menopause. i.e. the aspects of hormonal shifts in women that change the pathogenesis or progression of hypertension in this population.
Scientific research has examined and reported the protective role estrogen plays in cardiac blood vessel integrity and other metabolic processes specifically relating to pre- and post-menopausal women. This research has broadened the ability for primary prevention and treatment of high blood pressure and its other risk factors for healthcare providers, the general public and most directly, women.
MENOPAUSE & HYPERTENSION
Ms. RENECIA ROLLE-BAIN
The General Public, Healthcare Professionals, ETC
The connection between menopause and hypertension has been substantiated by numerous studies. However, compounding factors such as age, BMI (obesity), lifestyle behaviors such as lack of exercise and high sodium consumption also have a positive relationship to increasing blood pressure. The relationship between the decline in estrogen levels in post-menopausal women and development of hypertension increases as women age compared to men with hypertension in the same age group (see line graph B). This phenomenon is related to the decrease in the vasodilative effect of estrogen during menopause which helps keep blood vessels open. Projects for 2030 of an increased aging population of women also describes an expectation of increased numbers of hypertensive women.
The ethnic group most effected by high blood pressure post menopause are black women. The findings from my January-December 2024 patient data are all black Bahamian women belonging to the similar socioeconomic group and cultural food practices, contributing to significant rates of obesity also linked to hypertension.
DISCUSSION
Science is an evolving field in which new findings and expansions of current knowledge are happening more rapidly with advances in methodology and technological ability. Menopause and hypertension have been described as an age-old debate but the connection between both and the gap in healthcare education to specific ethnic cultures still has some stigma/taboo attached to patient education and lifestyle modification efforts in sensitization of preventable confounding factors leading to high blood pressure and progression to morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular related incidences.
Controversy remains between direct casual factors in menopause related hypertension, age or BMI, estrogen depletion or lifestyle behaviors are aspects of menopausal hypertension that require further in-depth study.