Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy increase the risk of future menopausal hot flashes in Japanese women: results from the Japan Nurses' Health Study.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to investigate whether hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are associated with problematic hot flashes in Japanese women.

METHODS

In this study, we included participants in the Japan Nurses' Health Study who were women aged 41 to 55 years at baseline, parous, and completed a 4-year follow-up questionnaire. The main outcome was self-reported problematic hot flashes. At the 4-year follow-up survey, we investigated hot flashes using the Climacteric Symptom Checklist for Japanese Women, which was developed by a subcommittee of the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

RESULTS

At the baseline survey, of the 4,627 women included in the analysis, 610 (13.2%) reported a history of HDP. At the 4-year follow-up survey, 394 women (8.5%) reported problematic hot flashes, 529 (11.4%) were diagnosed with premenopausal hypertension, and 2,389 (51.5%) were postmenopausal. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed a multivariable-adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of problematic hot flashes for women with a history of HDP of 1.42 (1.04-1.94), compared with women without this history. Among women without premenopausal hypertension, the odds ratio increased to 1.55 (1.10-2.19) among women with HDP as compared with those without these disorders.

CONCLUSIONS

In this prospective study, we found that women with a history of HDP have a significantly increased risk of problematic hot flashes, compared with their counterparts without a history of HDP.