[Clinical course and pathogenesis of oral contraceptive hypertension (author's transl)]

Oral contraceptives are of pathogenetic importance in hypertension of women aged 26 to 35 years. The hypertensive reaction occurs predominantly in those women who have hereditary predisposition in hypertension or diabetes mellitus, who suffer themselves from diabetes mellitus or who showed toxemia in preceding pregnancies. Experimental studies in rats indicated that oral contraceptive hypertension could be due to vascular lesions, produced by estrogen, and sodium retention, caused by progestogen. Our findings are not in agreement with the proposal that the hypertensive reaction in women is always reversible. It would be of advantage if oral contraceptives could be used, which contain no estrogen or at least estrogen in the lowest possible dose and which comprise progestogens without sodium-retaining effect.