Women afflicted with a high blood pressure condition during their first pregnancy suffer from massively increased risk of heart disease, researchers report today.
The findings suggest the problem, pre-eclampsia, may not always only be confined to pregnancy.
The research links increased risk of death from heart disease to a woman developing pre-eclampsia during the first pregnancy – and then not having any more children.
Norwegian researchers found these women faced a nine times increased risk of dying from heart disease compared with other women.
Having more children after pre-eclampsia was linked to a 2.4 times increased risk of dying from heart disease.
The findings come from a study of more than 800,000 women over a period of 42 years. The women first gave birth in 1967.
More than 23,000 women died during the period – some 3,891 from heart disease, according to the report in the British Medical Journal.
The researchers say the figures may reflect other underlying diseases, such as diabetes, which might lead women to decide to have no more than one child.
Researcher Professor Rolv Skjaerven, of the University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, says women who have suffered pre-eclampsia and had just one child might need special monitoring for heart disease risk.
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