The six-week blood pressure check that half of women miss

The edition in brief

An English cohort of about 40,000 women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy found that more than half had no blood pressure recorded at six weeks postpartum, and that an abnormal reading was associated with roughly double the risk of later cardiovascular disease (10.9% vs 5.4%, adjusted HR 1.96). Most events came before age 40. A meta-analysis of ten trials found that tocolysis and neuraxial anaesthesia were associated with more successful external cephalic version, though caesarean rates did not fall significantly and heterogeneity was high. A EudraVigilance disproportionality analysis found a meningioma reporting signal for desogestrel-only pills and a weaker exploratory one for drospirenone-only pills; this is a hypothesis, not a measured risk. A small phase 2 trial of elinzanetant showed less night waking at four weeks that was not sustained at twelve on the primary measure. The pearl covers what to do at the postnatal visit after pre-eclampsia.