Pre-eclampsia is one of those pregnancy-related health conditions that
is cured by delivering the baby. All the dangers -- the skyrocketing
blood pressure, the risk of seizures or stroke -- melt away once the
cord is cut and the infant is out on its own. So even though it's a
very serious, not uncommon malady (occuring in 5% of pregnancies), the doctors who treat a woman once she's past the baby-having phase typically don't pay much attention to it, or even understand it well.
All that may soon change. New research suggests that women who
experience pre-eclampsia are at higher risk for heart attacks and
strokes later in life. And the doctors who study the condition say it's
time for other physicians to take heed. As they point out, pregnancy
serves as a kind of natural stress test for the cardiovascular system;
women whose bodies have problems in pregnancy, while typically young
and healthy now, need to be watched more carefully, and perhaps
undertake concerted preventive efforts, to stave off future problems.
From the New YorkTimes article:
That risk is small, but noteworthy. Of 100 women in
their mid-40s with a history of normal pregnancy, about 4 would be
expected to have a heart attack or stroke some 10 years later, said Dr.
David Williams, an obstetrician at University College London who
published an analysis of 25 pre-eclampsia studies
in 2007. But the figure rises to 8 in 100 among women with
pre-eclampsia, and even more among those who have had it more than
once.
Dr. Williams now counsels pre-eclampsia patients to be
screened frequently for cholesterol levels, blood sugar and blood
pressure, and to consider treatment with medication if the levels are
high. But increasing awareness of the link between pre-eclampsia and
heart disease remains a challenge. “It’s not readily appreciated by
physicians,” Dr. Smith said. “If you ask a cardiologist, they go, ‘I
never heard of it.’ ”
So if you had pre-eclampsia during your pregnancy, is this bad news? Should you resign yourself to a future of heart disease down the road? According to the doctors quoted in the Times article, the reverse is true: consider yourself lucky that you have had the opportunity to learn, early on, that you may be at risk for conditions that you can now work on preventing. In other words, women who've lived through pre-eclampsia have been given a gift: a glimpse into one possible future, one they can now avoid.
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