Primipaternity and risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension - abstract

ABSTRACT

A possible association between pregnancy-induced hypertension and new father for the concerned pregnancy has been published. This prospective study explored the association between the duration of sexual cohabitation before conception with the father and pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) in primigravid and in multigravid women. During 5 months, 1011 women who consecutively delivered in the Maternity Ward were interviewed. Information about paternity and duration of sexual cohabitation before conception for the current pregnancy was collected. In 48/72 (66.7 percent) of PIH multigravidae, the father of the current pregnancy was different from that of the former, compared to 9/52 (17.3 percent) among chronic hypertensiver women and 152/633 (24.0 percent) in controls (p<0.0001). In primigravid and multigravid PIH women, the duration of sexual cohabitation was significantly shorter than in controls (p<0.0001). The length of sexual cohabitation before conception was correlated with PIH, especially for women with a cohabitation of 0-4 months, association regularly decreasing until 12 months. These results remained after controlling for ethnicity, level of education, maternal age, marital status and gravidity. PIH seems to be a problem of primipaternity (rather than primigravidity). In primipaternity pregnancies, a long duration of sexual cohabitation before conception could be protective against this disorder in women (AU)