Midlife Onset of Increasing Pulse Pressure Not Linked to Menopause

TUESDAY, Sept. 15, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Pulse pressure (PP) transitions from a falling to rising profile occur about 10 years earlier in women than men, before the onset of menopause in women, according to a study published online Sept. 14 in Hypertension.

Amy Y. Habib, M.D., from Boston Medical Center, and colleagues assessed relations between menopause timing and sex differences in PP among 6,760 unique participants from the Framingham Heart Study cohorts at three visits over 14 years. Women were categorized by age at menopause: persistently premenopausal or postmenopausal with early (age younger than 48 years), average (age 48 to 53 years), or late (age older than 53 years) menopause age.

The researchers observed a decrease in PP with increasing age in women and men younger than 40 years, with lower PP in women than men. In women and men after midlife, PP increased with age and was higher in women than men after age 60 years. After adjustment for vascular risk factors, nadirs in midlife PP occurred at 47 years in men and at ages 39, 38, 37, and 37 years in the four menopausal groups, respectively. In the postmenopausal groups, the nadirs occurred at an average of six, 14, and 19 years before menopause, respectively.

“To our huge surprise, our results suggest that factors other than the timing of the final menstrual period were likely involved in the accelerated increase in pulse pressure in women after midlife,” senior author Gary F. Mitchell, M.D., of Cardiovascular Engineering Inc. in Needham, Massachusetts, said in a statement.

One author disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries and is an inventor and coinventor on pending patent applications.

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