Abstract
The association between menopause and the risk of cardiovascular disease has been reported to be positive by most [1–4] though not all [5] investigators. Hypertension is one of the main cardiovascular risk factors, which might explain the excess cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in post compared with premenopausal women. Indeed, in most countries with a Western lifestyle, such as Belgium [6], men from 20 to 40 years of age have a higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure than women of similar age. In contrast, from age 55 onwards, when most women have reached menopause, the opposite tendency is observed [6]. Nonetheless, the question whether blood pressure increases independent of age following menopause has not yet been conclusively answered [7–12]. In view of the remaining uncertainty, the present study investigated whether a positive association between blood pressure and menopause was present in a random sample of the population of two Belgian districts.
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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Staessen, J.A., Bulpitt, C.J., Fagard, R., Lijnen, P., Amery, A. (1994). The Influence of Menopause on Blood Pressure. In: Safar, M.E., Stimpel, M., Zanchetti, A. (eds) Hypertension in Postmenopausal Women. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79077-5_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79077-5_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-58144-4
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