Blood Pressure in Post-Menopausal

During menopause, levels of estrogen decrease greatly. Besides being the cause of common side effects of menopause such as hot flashes, declining estrogen levels also mean elevating high blood pressure risk. It is important to montior your blood pressure during and after menopause, even if it has been normal for your whole life, because your risk increases substantially during this time.

As a Woman, What Should I Know?

Like men, women should be familiar with the basics of high blood pressure, the risks, and prevention strategies. You should also be aware that clinical models which say that women are at less risk than men are outdated. As a woman, there are unique topics such as pregnancy and menopause which can play an important role in your blood pressure health.

Traditional Ideas:

Clinical thinking used to say that women were less likely to develop high blood pressure than men. Numerous large, well run studies tracked high blood pressure in women over a long period of time, and correlated it to various things.
These studies showed that

• Women developed high blood pressure less frequently than men
• Women developed high blood pressure later in life than men
• Various factors, such as estrogen, protect women from developing things like high blood pressure and heart attack

New Ideas:

Women under a certain age do tend to develop high blood pressure less frequently than men, due to the protective effects of estrogen. As women age, this protective effect decreases, and by the retirement years, women and men share about the same level of risk.
Because of the complicated way that statistics can work, it is still sometimes said that women are at less risk than men. While technically correct, this statment is flawed, and should not give anyone false peace of mind.

If you Use Birth Control Pills:

There is research linking birth control pills to high blood pressure. Smoking cigarettes greatly amplifies this link. If you are thinking of starting birth control pills

• Quit Smoking - your doctor can help
• Have your blood pressure checked before starting the pill
• Have your blood pressure checked every six months

If you are overweight, have a family history of high blood presure, or have had a complicated pregnancy in the past, your doctor may want to check your blood pressure more often.

What Are the Effects of High Blood Pressure in Pregnancy?

Many pregnant women with high blood pressure have healthy babies without serious problems, high blood pressure can be dangerous for both the mother and the fetus. Women with pre-existing, or chronic, high blood pressure are more likely to have certain complications during pregnancy tha those with normal blood pressure. However, some women develop high blood pressure while they are pregnant (often called gestational hypertension).

The effects of high blood pressure range from mild to severe. High blood pressure can harm the mother's kidneys and other organs, and it can cause low birth weight and early delivery. In the most serious cases, the mother develops preeclampsia - or "toxemia of pregnancy"--which can threaten the lives of both the mother and the fetus.so be avoid and consult to doctor.

High blood pressure effects on eyes

Hypertension or high blood pressure leads to many changes in the blood vessels of the body. These same changes in blood vessels affect the eyes in many ways. It can cause the following problems in the eye:

• Hypertensive retinopathy
• Macroaneurysms
• Branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) and vitreous hemorrhage
• Optic nerve involvement (Optic neuropathy)
• Involvement of the nerves supplying the eye muscles, leading to temporary paralysis or weakness of these muscles
What are the symptoms of these conditions?

Many of these conditions may not have any symptoms in the initial stages. Therefore it is important to have a periodic eye checkup to detect these.

Branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) may lead to a blurring of vision especially for fine work. A vitreous hemorrhage may lead to a more severe loss of vision associated with a shower of red floaters.

Optic neuropathy may also lead to a loss of vision, which is painless and not associated with any floaters.

Paralysis or weakness of the muscles of the eye leads to restriction of movement of the eye and double vision.

What is the role of laser in treatment of eye disease because of high blood pressure?

Branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) is a condition that is commonly associated with high blood pressure and changes of hypertensive retinopathy. This condition may lead to loss of vision by two mechanisms:


Macular edema (swelling of the region of macula): Macula is the central region of the retina and is important for seeing fine details. A swelling in this region leads to a decrease in vision. This condition can be treated by doing laser therapy.


Vitreous hemorrhage: Sometimes the BRVO may lead to formation of new vessels in the retina. These vessels are abnormal and are very fragile. These may bleed and may cause vitreous hemorrhage and thus loss of vision. A timely detection of these new vessels can be treated by doing laser therapy and thus causing these new vessels to disappear.
Macroaneurysm: This is an uncommon manifestation of hypertension. Untreated, this may cause bleeding into vitreous and thus loss of vision. This condition can be treated by laser therapy.

Why is eye checkup important if one has hypertension?

Eye is the only organ of the body where one can observe the blood vessels directly. Seeing the retina by using ophthalmoscope, we can see the blood vessels. Thus examination of the eyes help the physician or ophthalmologist to observe the changes in blood vessels because of hypertension. This gives an idea about the severity of the disease elsewhere in the body.

Moreover, presence of swelling of the disc (grade 4 hypertensive retinopathy) is an indicator of a very severe, life threatening rise in blood pressure, which warrants emergency treatment to control the blood pressure.

If the patient has both hypertension and diabetes, can both these diseases affect his/her eyes?

Yes. The patient can have changes of both diabetic retinopathy as well as hypertensive retinopathy. In fact, presence of hypertension may lead to exacerbation of the changes due to diabetic retinopathy. Therefore it is important to control the blood pressure in a patient with diabetic retinopathy.