Pregnancy problems may signal higher risks for several later diseases.
A large study of women in England has found that certain pregnancy problems may be tied to a higher chance of developing heart, blood sugar, blood pressure, and kidney problems later in life. The findings suggest that a woman’s pregnancy history may provide useful information about her future health, even years after a pregnancy has ended. The research team looked at health records for more than 1.4 million women who had been pregnant and were registered with a general practitioner in the United Kingdom between 2000 and 2022. The women were followed for an average of four years. Information from primary care records was linked with hospital records so researchers could compare women who had pregnancy complications with those who did not.
Several pregnancy problems stood out. Women who developed high blood pressure during pregnancy or pre-eclampsia later had more than three times the rate of high blood pressure compared with women who did not have those problems. They also had about twice the rate of chronic kidney disease. Smaller increases were seen for heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Gestational diabetes showed an even stronger connection with later blood sugar problems. Women who had diabetes during pregnancy had about seven times the rate of type 2 diabetes later on. Higher rates of high blood pressure and heart disease were also found among these women. The study also found connections involving pregnancy problems that have received less attention in past research. Women who experienced depression after giving birth had higher rates of all four health conditions examined in the study: heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and chronic kidney disease. Rates were between 35% and 56% higher among women with postnatal depression following their most recent pregnancy.
Other pregnancy outcomes were linked with smaller increases in one or more later health problems. These included miscarriage, stillbirth, placental abruption, premature birth, and babies who were smaller or larger than expected for their stage of pregnancy. Some of these connections were seen when the complication occurred during an earlier pregnancy rather than the most recent one.
Earlier research had already connected gestational diabetes and high blood pressure during pregnancy with later health problems. However, less was known about whether other pregnancy complications might also serve as signs of future health risks. Chronic kidney disease has also received less attention in studies of women’s health after pregnancy. The researchers said the findings may support taking a person’s full pregnancy history into account when looking at long-term health. The period after pregnancy could provide an opportunity to check blood pressure, blood sugar, kidney health, and other risk factors, especially among women who experienced pregnancy complications.
The study does not prove that pregnancy complications directly cause heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, or kidney disease. Instead, the complications may be signs that a woman already has factors that make these conditions more likely to develop later. Other factors, including diet, exercise, family history, and general health, can also affect future disease risk.
The researchers said more work is needed to understand why these pregnancy problems are linked with later disease. Future studies may also determine whether adding pregnancy history to standard health checks can improve the ability to spot women who may face higher risks. For doctors, the current findings support asking about past pregnancies as part of routine health discussions. For women who have experienced complications, the results may provide another reason to keep track of blood pressure, blood sugar, kidney health, and heart health as the years pass.
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Study links pregnancy complications to future heart and kidney disease
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