Effect of age at menopause on blood pressure in postmenopausal women.
BACKGROUND
A major mechanism of hypertension in many postmenopausal women is deficiency of female gonadal steroids. A long postmenopausal period may thus represent one factor that influences the prevalence of hypertension because of long periods of estrogen loss.


METHODS
When we conducted a medical survey in northwestern China, we also asked 150 postmenopausal female subjects to provide age at menopause in a questionnaire. Age at menopause ranged from 37 to 57 years for all subjects. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in all subjects were obtained from 24-h ambulatory blood-pressure monitoring.


RESULTS
An inverse correlation was identified between age at menopause and SBP and DBP, and a positive correlation was found between postmenopausal period and either SBP or DBP. Blood pressure, age at menopause, and postmenopausal period were not significantly related to body mass index, plasma renin activity, glomerular filtration rate, or urinary excretion values of sodium and potassium.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results clearly demonstrated that higher blood-pressure levels in postmenopausal women depend on age at menopause and postmenopausal period, but not subjects' age, suggesting that a longer absence of female gonadal steroids represents a major factor contributing to increased blood pressure in elderly women.
Izumi
Yoichi
Y
Division of Nephrology and Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Nihon University School of Medicine, Itabashiku, Tokyo, Japan. yoizumi@med.nihon-u.ac.jp
Matsumoto
Koichi
K
Ozawa
Yukio
Y
Kasamaki
Yuji
Y
Shinndo
Atsusi
A
Ohta
Masakatsu
M
Jumabay
Madet
M
Nakayama
Tomohiro
T
Yokoyama
Eise
E
Shimabukuro
Hiroaki
H
Kawamura
Hiroshi
H
Cheng
Zuheng
Z
Ma
Yitong
Y
Mahmut
Masum
M
D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D002681:China; D004967:Estrogens / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008593:Menopause / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D017698:Postmenopause / Q000502:physiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors
D004967:Estrogens