Infertility treatment can double risk of postpartum heart disease: Study

Infertility treatment patients were twice as likely to be hospitalised with heart disease in the year following delivery as spontaneously conceived patients according to a study conducted by Rutgers Health experts using more than 31 million hospital recordsInfertility patients were 216 times more likely to be hospitalised for hypertension or dangerously elevated blood pressure than normally conceived patientsPostpartum checkups are necessary for all patients but this study indicates they are particularly important for patients who undergo infertility treatment to achieve a conception said Rei Yamada an obstetrics and gynecology resident at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and lead author of the studyThe study authors say their results support standards of care that now call for an initial postpartum checkup three weeks after delivery standards that some health systems have yet to adopt Much of the elevated risk came in the first month after delivery particularly for patients who developed dangerously high blood pressureAlso Read Indiarsquos fertility rate plummets doctors seek solutionsAnd these results arent the only ones to indicate that followup should occur early said Cande Ananth chief of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Department of Obstetrics Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and senior author of the study We have been involved in a series of studies over the past few years that have found serious risks of heart disease and stroke to various highrisk patient populations within those initial 30 days after delivery risks that could be mitigated with earlier followup careThe study analyzed the Nationwide Readmissions Database which contains nationally representative data on about 31 million hospital discharges and readmissions per year The database contains diagnosis codes which let researchers find specific populations and identify reasons for readmissionThe researchers used data from more than 31 million patients who were discharged following delivery from 2010 to 2018 including 287813 patients who had undergone any infertility treatmentAlthough infertility treatment predicted a sharply elevated risk of heart disease the study authors said the relative youth of infertility treatment patients kept their overall risk fairly low Just 550 of every 100000 women who received infertility treatment and 355 of every 100000 who conceived naturally were hospitalised with cardiovascular disease in the year after deliveryAlso Read Dating but not ready for sex Herersquore expert intimacy tips for successful romantic relationshipThe cause of the elevated risk of heart disease associated with infertility treatment remains unclear The increase in heart disease could stem from the infertility treatments themselves the underlying medical issues that made patients infertile or some other causeLooking forward Id like to see if different types of infertility treatment and importantly medications are associated with different risk levels said Yamada Our data gave no information about which patients had undergone which treatment More detailed information might also provide insight into how infertility treatment impacts cardiovascular outcomesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever