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Your pregnancy history could predict your heart health decades later. A large Swedish study found that five major adverse pregnancy outcomes — including gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and preterm delivery — are each independently linked to a significantly higher risk of peripheral artery disease (PAD) up to 46 years after delivery. Gestational diabetes carried the strongest association, nearly quadrupling the risk.
Your pregnancy history could be a window into your future vascular health. A sweeping study using nationwide Swedish data tracked over 2.2 million women for up to 46 years after delivery and found that five major adverse pregnancy outcomes — gestational diabetes, small for gestational age, preeclampsia, preterm delivery, and other hypertensive disorders — were each independently linked to a higher long-term risk of peripheral artery disease (PAD). About 30% of women in the cohort had experienced at least one of these complications, and 13,211 were ultimately diagnosed with PAD (median age: 62 years).
Researchers emphasized that the risk persisted across all five outcomes despite their clinical differences, suggesting shared underlying vascular pathways. Women with multiple adverse pregnancy outcomes faced even greater risk, and the associations could not be explained by shared family factors.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: Pregnancy complications may serve as early vascular warning signs — decades before PAD would typically be screened for. Experts say documenting adverse pregnancy history in medical records and aggressively managing modifiable risk factors (like diabetes, hypertension, and smoking) starting in the postpartum period could be key to protecting women's long-term cardiovascular health.
