[The pathogenesis of oral contraceptive hypertension (author's transl)]

Simultaneous administration of estrogen and progestogen accelerates Goldblatt-type hypertension in rats. Neither estrogen nor progestogen alone alters arterial blood pressure. In the hormonal combination the hypertensive effect of estrogen can be replaced by epsilon-amino-capronic acid and the hypertensive effect of progestogen by desoxycorticosterone acetate. Estrogen is the only substance increasing plasma renin activity. There exists no correlation between the increase of the blood pressure and the plasma renin activity in the various groups of experimental animals receiving the different hypertensive preparations. Because of this, oral contraceptive hypertension may be supposed not to result from a stimulation of the renin-angiotensin system but may easily be seen in a combination of endothelial lesions and sodium retention, the former being caused by the estrogen's effect on blood coagulation, the latter produced by the synthetic progestogen.