Possible Link Reported Between Female Testosterone and High Blood Pressure.

2001 FEB 8 - (NewsRx.com) -- Female testosterone is a possible cause of high blood pressure in post-menopausal women, no matter whether they take hormone replacement.

That hypothesis is based on most recent findings in an ongoing study by Dr. Jane Reckelhoff, a scientist from the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMC), in Jackson, who has been exploring gender differences in high blood pressure for a dozen years.

"I've learned a lot more lately about hypertension in post-menopausal women," Reckelhoff said. "We know that aging is associated with oxidative stress and we think testosterone works through that system."

Her findings also bring some new ideas about what post-menopausal women can do to possibly reduce the occurrence of hypertension.

Reckelhoffs ongoing study is funded in part by a five-year grant to UMC from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). She serves as an investigator for that project, titled "Cardiovascular Dynamics and Their Control" under UMC's Department of Physiology.

Men become hypertensive earlier and more frequently than women. But, after menopause, blood pressure in women goes up even more so than in men of the same age, Reckelhoff noted. Initially, scientists hypothesized that the estrogen depletion in aging women was the trigger, but that no longer is believed to be the cause. Women who take hormone replacement don't escape the increased incidence of hypertension, she said.

Testosterone may naturally increase in women as estrogen naturally decreases during menopause. Women have the same testosterone as found in men, but less than one-tenth as much, Reckelhoff said. Testosterone also is present in some hormone replacement drugs. "The only reason testosterone is included ...