Introduction

Abstract

The meeting on hypertension in postmenopausal women, held in Monte Carlo in the context of the Third International Forum for the Evaluation of Cardiovascular Care (IFECC III), was particularly timely, as it has been among the first and few ones addressing the attention of both clinical investigators and practicing doctors to a field largely disregarded for many years. Apart from recognizing that blood pressure is frequently increasing in women around the menopausal age and that the overall cardiovascular risk rises after the menopause, until recently no concerted action was devoted to better clarify the multiple relations between hormonal status, blood presure, risk, cardiovascular complications and prevention in a condition in which women spend one third of their lives.