Researchers have found a link between infertility treatment and an increased risk of hypertensive diseases. A study conducted by Rutgers Health experts analyzed over 31 million hospital records and discovered that patients who underwent infertility treatment were twice as likely to be hospitalized with heart disease in the year following delivery compared to those who conceived naturally. Additionally, these patients were 2.16 times more likely to be hospitalized for dangerously high blood pressure or hypertension. The study highlights the importance of postpartum check-ups for all patients, especially those who have undergone infertility treatment.This research shows that postpartum checkups are especially important for patients undergoing infertility treatment to conceive,” said Rei Yamada, a resident in obstetrics and gynecology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the study’s lead author.
The study’s findings support the current standards of care recommending a postpartum checkup three weeks after delivery, which some health systems have not yet implemented. Most of the increased risk occurred in the first month after delivery, especially for patients who developed dangerously high blood pressure.
“These results are not the only ones to demonstrate the importance of postpartum care, but they are significant,” said Yamada.”Our research suggests that it is crucial for follow-up care to be initiated early,” explained Cande Ananth, the head of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and the senior author of the study. “In the past few years, our studies have revealed significant risks of heart disease and stroke among high-risk patient groups within the first 30 days after childbirth. These risks could be reduced with prompt follow-up care.”
The study examined the Nationwide Readmissions Database, which contains data representative of the entire country.The database contains diagnosis codes that can help researchers identify specific populations and reasons for readmission, with about 31 million hospital discharges and readmissions per year. The researchers analyzed data from over 31 million patients who were discharged after delivery from 2010 to 2018, including 287,813 patients who had undergone infertility treatment. The study found that infertility treatment was linked to a significantly higher risk of heart disease, but due to the relative youth of infertility treatment patients, their overall risk remained relatively low, with only 550 out of every 100,000 women who received infertility treatment being affected.The study found that 776 out of every 100,000 women who received infertility treatment and 355 out of every 100,000 who conceived naturally were hospitalized with cardiovascular disease in the year after delivery.
The reason for the higher risk of heart disease in women who received infertility treatment is not clear. It could be due to the infertility treatments themselves, the underlying medical conditions that caused infertility, or some other factor.
“In the future, I would like to investigate whether different types of infertility treatment and, importantly, medications are linked to different levels of risk,” said Yamada. “Our data did not provide information about which patients had undergone which treatments.Infertility treatment may have an impact on cardiovascular outcomes, according to a recent study. The study suggests that infertility treatment could be associated with an increased risk of postpartum hospitalization due to heart disease. This finding highlights the importance of further research to better understand the potential cardiovascular effects of infertility treatment. The study was published in the Journal of Internal Medicine in 2024.
