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Oral Contraceptives, Hypertension, and Toxemia

From the Virginia Heart Laboratory, School of Medicine of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.

Abstract

Oral contraceptive therapy produces an elevation of blood pressure in a few susceptible individuals. In an attempt to define a group of normotensive women in whom elevation of arterial pressure might be anticipated, 96 women with a prior history of toxemia of pregnancy were surveyed to determine the effects of oral contraceptive therapy on their blood pressure. No significant differences were found when the entire group was used for comparison. However, when 25 normotensive pilltakers were matched as nearly as possible by age, race, parity, arm circumference, and severity of toxemia with a group of normotensive nonpill-takers, both systolic and diastolic pressures were higher among the group receiving oral contraceptive medication; the diastolic difference was significant at the 0.05 confidence level. Patients with a blood pressure of no more than 140/90 were considered normotensive for the purpose of this survey.