BLOOD PRESSURE CHANGES IN POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN

BACKGROUND Women are prone to become hypertensive after menopause. Women of different ethnicity show higher prevalence of coronary artery disease and hypertension after menopause. Due to ovarian hormone deficiency, women after menopause can suffer from metabolic syndrome and hypertension compared with those in premenopausal period. After menopause changes like weight gain, tolerance to insulin, sympathetic tone, lipid changes, salt sensitivity occur in our body and these interact with one another, highlighting ovarian hormone deficiency and ageing. We wanted to compare the blood pressure differences in premenopausal with postmenopausal women. METHODS This is a comparative cross-sectional study. Healthy fifty post-menopausal women aged 50 to 55 yrs. and fifty premenopausal healthy women aged 35-40 yrs. with height and weight matched were included in the study. Data was obtained via comprehensive questionnaire. Statistical analysis was done by using student 't' test. RESULTS Statistically significant higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure was observed in postmenopausal women. Also, resting pulse rate was slightly higher in postmenopausal women. CONCLUSIONS Oestrogen deficiency leads to oxidative stress due to release of free radical or reactive oxygen species (ROS) which causes various pathologies like hypertension. In postmenopausal women, oxidative stress causes potential oxidative injury in the cells developing potential oxidative injury in the cells causing disease in this stage of life.(2) Natural menopause does not immediately aggravate heart disease which may be due to both age and oestrogen deficiency.