The effect of estrogens and progestins on blood pressure regulation of normotensive women

The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis that hormones secreted by the ovaries are responsible for a “protective mechanism” of blood pressure regulation of the woman. Under physiologic conditions, there was a distinct correlation between the degree of estrogenic activity and the blood pressure response. This was true for normotensive women at rest and under stress. This protective mechanism was also demonstrated in pharmacologic experiments when estrogens were administered to ovariectomized women. An additional activity of progestins caused a slight alteration of the systolic blood pressure response to stress but did not abolish the effect of estrogens.