Women worldwide should be cautious about their blood pressure, experts warn. High blood pressure is the most deadly risk for women across the globe, according to doctors.
Women are being urged to take their blood pressure seriously, with cardiologists from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) highlighting that the risk for heart disease increases at a lower level in women compared with men.
Experts suggest that it could be just a matter of years before the threshold for normal blood pressure will be lower in women than men.
Issuing the advice on World Hypertension Day, the doctors said women should start treating high blood pressure (hypertension) in middle age in order to prevent symptoms such as shortness of breath and fatigue when they get older.
“The risk for cardiovascular disease increases at a lower blood pressure level in women compared to men,” Professor Angela Maas, emeritus director of the Women’s Cardiac Health Programme, Radboud University Medical Centre, the Netherlands, said.
“One of the most important consequences of hypertension in women is a type of heart failure in which the heart muscle is stiff,” she added.
Data suggests that around one in three women have hypertension across the world, and globally the condition has been named the most important risk factor for death in women.
“Despite its importance, we know that hypertension is more often underestimated and not, or insufficiently, treated in women compared to men,” Maas says.
Maas continues: “One of the reasons may be that below the age of 50, hypertension is more prevalent in men. This reverses in the years after menopause so that after the age of 65, hypertension is more common in women than men.”
Experts suggest it is a misconception that high blood pressure does not cause symptoms. Instead, they say, symptoms are more pronounced in women but may be mistaken for menopause, anxiety, or stress.
Young and middle-aged women with high blood pressure often report palpitations, chest pain, pain between the shoulder blades, headaches, difficulty concentrating, shortness of breath, tiredness, fluid retention, poor sleep, hot flushes, and a feeling their bra is too tight.
Hypertension in midlife is more harmful in women than in similarly aged men, and is a stronger risk factor for heart attack, cognitive decline, and dementia, according to the experts.
The probability of stroke increases at a lower blood pressure level in women than in men, while high blood pressure raises the risk for heart failure in women by threefold, compared with twofold in men.
It is advised that women should start monitoring their blood pressure annually at the age of 40 if they have hypertension in their family, or if they had hypertension during pregnancy.
However, women with preeclampsia should check their blood pressure from that pregnancy onwards at least twice a year. Whilst women with no issues during pregnancy and no family history should start yearly measurements at age 50 when they enter menopause.