Females of all ages, sexes have more salt- sensitive hypertension than their counterparts

There is increasing evidence that females of all ethnicities and ages are more salt sensitive than males, and that this propensity to hold onto more salt, which drives blood pressure up, increases after menopause.

It’s generally thought that females are better protected against cardiovascular disease than males until menopause, when the risk is thought to level out. Laboratory studies in traditional hypertension rat models, like the Dahl Salt-Sensitive rat, have generally supported those ideas, including an equalization of risk in the two sexes following removal of the ovaries.

But in female humans and some mouse models the protection appears less absolute: Because more females are salt sensitive before menopause, and menopause exacerbates both its severity and prevalence, MCG scientists report in a review article featured on the cover of the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.

That supports yet another emerging concept that the sex chromosome XX predisposes females to salt sensitivity, presumably because females need to nearly double their fluid volume during pregnancy, and estrogen does help mitigate some of the related increased risk, at least until its levels drop after menopause.