Bad News For Some New Mothers

A new study by Kaiser Permanente researchers has linked gestational diabetes to a higher risk of heart disease in early life among the women who experience the condition.

Although gestational diabetes subsides after pregnancy, women are at higher risk of suffering heart disease even if they did not develop type 2 adult onset diabetes, the researchers concluded.

Gestational diabetes occurs during 2% to 10% of all pregnancies in the U.S., according to data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. 

Kaiser researchers surveyed 898 women between the ages of 18 and 30 who later gave birth and followed up on their health over the course of 20 years. The thickness of their carotid arteries were measured on average 12 years after their pregnancies. Those women who suffered from gestational diabetes and did not develop type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome had thicker-than-average carotid arteries, putting them at greater risk for heart disease.

“Pregnancy has been under-recognized as an important time period that can signal a woman’s greater risk for future heart disease. This signal is revealed by gestational diabetes,” said Erica P. Gunderson, senior research scientist at Kaiser's research division. “It’s a shift in thinking about how to identify a subgroup at risk for atherosclerosis early. The concept that reproductive complications unmask future disease risk is a more recent focus. It may inform early prevention efforts.”

The study's findings were published in the most recent issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association.