- A European consensus document suggests that doctors should take stronger steps to identify high blood pressure in middle-aged women.
- High blood pressure is often mistaken for menopausal symptoms, according to the report’s authors.
- Early detection and treatment are important in preventing bad outcomes like heart failure and stroke.
- Women can help in their own care by doing home blood pressure monitoring, leading a healthy lifestyle, and taking medications when needed.
According to a new consensus document from European cardiologists, gynecologists, and endocrinologists, doctors should make much stronger efforts to detect high blood pressure in middle-aged women.
The study authors said that high blood pressure in women is often written off as either stress or menopausal symptoms, both by their doctors and by the women themselves.
When the diagnosis is overlooked, however, it can cause women to delay treatment, putting them at greater risk for conditions like heart failure and stroke.
Better recognition of high blood pressure is an important step to reducing women’s cardiovascular risk.
Source: healthline