Gender pressure

Men and women both can get high blood pressure, but how they each end up getting it is seldom the same. For men, the road to high blood pressure is usually shorter and much more rapid than it is with women -- something that doctors from the Medical College of Georgia Vascular Biology Center are studying with interest.

Men develop hypertension earlier than women and they generally tend to demonstrate an increase in blood pressure more rapidly, that is until women reach menopause. But, the researchers question whether these more "protected" years for women has so much to do with hormones. To find out, when testicles were removed (ahem...we're talking about in lab rats), blood pressure tends to drop a small amount. When ovaries are removed, blood pressure remains unchanged.

Hmmm.....

If it's not related to gender, why does it appear to be so related to gender?! The researchers are also examining nitric oxide levels in men and women, as well as a myriad of other possible reasons behind the disparity. Whatever the reason turns out to be, it seems that at/or around the age of 70, the playing field is completely leveled, as men and women share a similar risk for cardiovascular disease and hypertension by that point.