United States: Blood pressure maintained at the normal level might prove to be a preventive measure for the emergence of uterine fibroids, data collected by experts indicate.
Blood Pressure Medication Reduces Risk
Blood pressure medication intake lowers middle-aged women‘s risk of benign prostate hypertrophy by 37%, according to the population study that has investigated this cohort for up to 17 years, as reported by the Associated Press.
Hypertension Linked to Fibroid Emergence
On the other hand, “patients with new-onset hypertension had a 45% increased risk of newly reported fibroids,” said a team led by Susannah Mitro, a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif.
The findings were published April 16 in JAMA Network Open.
Prevalence and Symptoms
The research indicates that fibroids are benign growths, but they are associated with pain and can appear in the uterus of about 80% of women older than 50 years.
Fibroids also cause pain in the bleeding, but there are no known methods of prevention.
In this recent study, Mitro’s team examined survey data from 1996-2013 for 2,570 US women enrolled in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, which is aimed at women aged 45 years or more.
These females started from a zero background of any fibroid symptoms at the commencement of the study, but 20% had eventually been diagnosed with fibroids by the end of a 17-year study period.
Besides, the blood pressure of women was reflected during this period.
The researchers have worked out that there is a direct link between a woman’s blood pressure and her chances of getting uterine tumors.
As an example, out of the women who were found to be undiagnosed and untreated with high blood pressure, their risk of fibroids forms almost 50%, “whereas those with treated hypertension had a 20% lower risk,” Mitro’s group stated.
Medication Benefits
The team of researchers observed that women who took one specific category of drugs, called ACE inhibitors, to treat their high blood pressure reflected a 48 percent drop in the risk of developing fibroids, as reported by the Associated Press.
The exact links between blood pressure and fibroid risk aren’t clear, but “if associations are causal, antihypertensive medication use where indicated may present an opportunity to prevent … fibroid development at this high-risk life stage,” the researchers said.