Women with PMS are at increased risk of heart attack and stroke

November 26, 2015  10:35

As if suffering from PMT isn’t bad enough.

Scientists say that women who experience the monthly misery of pre-menstrual syndrome are up to three times as likely to develop high blood pressure before they turn 40.

Left untreated, raised blood pressure trebles the risk of heart attacks and strokes, damage the kidneys and eyes and may even fuel dementia.

Worryingly, women with bad PMS are particularly likely to develop high blood pressure while still in their 20s and 30s – meaning decades of ill health may lie ahead.

With this in mind, the US researchers have suggested that women whose PMS is debilitating enough to interfere with their home or working life undergo regular blood pressure checks.

The Massachusetts University team made the link by tracking the health of more than 3,500 women aged 25-plus for up to 20 years.

Around a third had suffered the mood swings, sleeplessness, backache and other symptoms of moderate to severe PMS. The others were not troubled by the condition.

Those with PMS were 40 per cent more likely develop high blood pressure over the next 20 years, the American Journal of Epidemiology reports.

The link was particularly strong for blood pressure problems that occurred when still young, with women with PMS more than three times as likely as the others to develop high blood pressure, which is also known as hypertension, before the age of 40.

The results held when other factors such as smoking, weight, exercise and family history of high blood pressure were taken into account.

It is thought that faults in hormonal systems that push up blood pressure may also fuel some of the symptoms of PMS.

Researcher Elizabeth Bertone-Johnson, of the University of Massachusetts, said: ‘Hypertension is among the strongest predictors of heart attack, stroke, heart failure and kidney disease in women.

‘Evidence suggests that prevalence in young women is increasing and despite the availability of effective treatments, less than half of hypertension in women younger than 40 years of age is treated.

‘New strategies are needed to identify high-risk women to target for increased screening and early intervention.

‘Women with PMS should be screened for adverse changes in blood pressure and future risk of hypertension.’

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