A recent study led by researches at Rutgers University in New Jersey has uncovered an alarmingly high risk of postpartum heart disease among patients who underwent infertility treatments.
The authors examined data from the Nationwide Readmissions Database regarding 31 million patients who were discharged after delivery from 2010 to 2018. Nearly 280,000 of these patients had undergone infertility treatment prior to becoming pregnant. Upon analyzing the database’s information regarding hospital readmission rates, the authors discovered that patients who received infertility treatment were 2.16 times as likely to be hospitalized for high blood pressure or hypertension in their first year postpartum.
The authors believe their findings point towards a need to examine the underlying causes leading to this elevated risk of postpartum heart disease among infertility patients. They suggest future studies examine different types of infertility treatments to determine if any methods or medications are associated with different risk levels.