Patient Perspective: Pulmonary Hypertension
While both men and women are at risk for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), it is more likely to affect women. Approximately 60 percent of PAH patients hospitalized between 1995 and 1998 were women. Among those women, 37 percent were younger than 65.
Unfortunately, pregnancy aggravates the condition, so for women with PAH, pregnancy can be life-threatening. Within 35 days of childbirth, the death rate for new mothers with PAH is between 30 and 56 percent.37 A woman with PAH often must choose between having a family and risking her own life to have a baby.
Despite the discouraging statistics, researchers are making progress. A 2001 case study in Chest reported that epoprostenol therapy combined with an anticoagulant can improve outcomes for mother and child when used before, during, and after delivery, without negative side effects on the child.38 For nonpregnant patients, survival also appears to be increasing. Many people can manage the disorder for up to 20 years. Genetic studies and pharmaceutical research are providing hope for the development of new treatments of PAH and possibilities for a cure in the future.39
< back to list
Endnotes:
37 Women and Pulmonary Hypertension, fact sheet, http://www.phassociation.org/media/fact_women.pdf.
38 R. Stewart et al., "Pregnancy and Primary Pulmonary Hypertension: Successful Outcome with Epoprostenol Therapy," Chest 119 (2001): 973-975.
39 Women and Pulmonary Hypertension, op. cit.
