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SubscribeYou may have had normal blood pressure for years.
Then, around perimenopause, you see your numbers creeping up. And after menopause, your blood pressure is much higher than it’s ever been. What happened?
It’s very common for people to have high blood pressure after menopause.
Before menopause, women tend to have lower blood pressure than men the same age. After menopause, that changes. Women in mid-life are far more likely to have high blood pressure than men the same age.
There are a lot of possible reasons why.
Elevated blood pressure is anything between 120 and 129/80. Typically, high blood pressure is diagnosed if you’re consistently at or over 130/80. The top number is the systolic pressure, the pressure in your arteries when your heart beats, pumping blood. The bottom number is the diastolic pressure, the pressure within the arteries between heartbeats.
One of the numbers could be elevated and not the other. It’s far more common for people with high blood pressure to have a high top number (systolic) rather than a high bottom number (diastolic).
You might have high blood pressure and experience headaches and shortness of breath as a result. Or you may have no symptoms, which is much more common.
If you have blood pressure that’s a little bit high — in the 120s on top and the low 80s on the bottom — you may not have any symptoms. You’re not in danger unless your blood pressure stays higher than 130/80 for several months.
Left untreated, your heart can suffer, having to pump more forcefully to move the blood through the arteries. That can, over time, weaken the heart. It’s like if you pinch a section of a garden hose; water has a much harder time moving through the hose.
High blood pressure runs in families. If you have a parent who has or had high blood pressure, you’re at greater risk of developing it. That’s even if everything else is healthy – your weight, diet and exercise habits.
I have a patient who has a healthy weight, eats a balanced diet and runs marathons but still has high blood pressure. Both her parents had it.
Left untreated, high blood pressure can cause heart disease, which includes various conditions, such as coronary artery disease, when plaque builds up around the heart’s arteries.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death among men and women in the United States.
Before high blood pressure takes a toll on your heart, there’s a lot you can do to lower your blood pressure.
Hormone replacement therapy is not used to treat high blood pressure. Typically, the therapy doesn’t typically affect blood pressure readings.
Even though you can’t always feel high blood pressure, leaving it uncontrolled for too long can damage your heart.
To prevent that, it’s important to have a health care provider check your blood pressure at least once a year.
If lifestyle changes don’t lower your blood pressure enough, medication can. There are many options, several of them inexpensive, that work well to keep blood pressure down.
Patients sometimes ask me why they need to take medication to lower their blood pressure if they have no symptoms of high blood pressure. I tell them that treating their high blood pressure is like changing the oil in the car. It keeps the engine going.
The Center for Women’s Health provides personalized care for women across their lifespans.
Expert care starts here