Association of Hypertension with Serum Estrogen Level in Postmenopausal Women

Hypertension is a chronic and debilitating disease. Its complications give rise to cardiovascular diseases, stroke in Postmenopausal women. Estrogen deficiency that develops during menopause is likely the etiological factor for development of hypertension in postmenopausal women. Increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases in postmenopausal women may be due to hypertension caused by lower level of estrogen hormone. The study was carried out to observe the association of hypertension with serum estrogen level in postmenopausal women. This cross sectional study was conducted in the Department of Physiology, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka, during the period of January 2011 to December 2011. A total number of 90 female subjects were selected from different areas of Dhaka city. Among them, 60 postmenopausal women with age ranging from 50 to 60 years were taken as study group and 30 apparently healthy premenopausal women with age ranging from 20 to 30 years were included as control group for comparison. Systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were recorded in both groups. Serum estrogen level was estimated in order to assess the hormonal level of both groups. Data was analyzed by Unpaired Student's 't' test and Pearson's co-efficient (r) test as applicable. The value of systolic blood pressure was higher in postmenopausal women than those of premenopausal women and result was statistically significant. The level of diastolic blood pressure was also significantly (p<0.001) higher in postmenopausal women in comparison to those of premenopausal women. In postmenopausal women serum estrogen level was lower than premenopausal women and serum estrogen level showed negative correlation with systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels. All these correlation were statistically non significant. Present study revealed that there is association of hypertension with serum estrogen level in postmenopausal women.