Your history and
the heart guidelines.
What to share with your clinician, and where the guidance comes from.
What do the heart guidelines say?
Learn which parts of your history to share and what the guidelines say about follow-up.
Your clinician can use the experiences below alongside your blood pressure and cholesterol to understand your risk. The 2026 American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology cholesterol guideline says this history can help you decide together whether cholesterol-lowering medicine makes sense for you.
What to share about pregnancy
- Preeclampsia or high blood pressure that began during pregnancy (gestational hypertension)
- Being told you had gestational diabetes
- Giving birth before 37 weeks
- A baby whose birth weight was below the 10th percentile for that week of pregnancy (small for gestational age)
- Repeated miscarriages (recurrent pregnancy loss)
What to share about periods and menopause
- Your first period came before age 10
- You have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or a history of irregular periods
- You went through menopause before age 45, especially before 40
What does “higher risk” mean after preeclampsia?
A Danish study followed women who gave birth for the first time before age 35. Over the next 20 years, about 7 in 1,000 who had preeclampsia had a heart attack, compared with about 3 in 1,000 who had no preeclampsia in that pregnancy. Your own risk also depends on your age, blood pressure, cholesterol and other factors. Read the Danish study.
If you had high blood pressure during pregnancy
Preeclampsia and gestational hypertension put you at higher risk of long-term high blood pressure. Preeclampsia is also linked to heart failure. In the weeks after birth, follow your care team’s plan for blood pressure checks. Once your pressure is back to normal and you no longer need medicine for it, the 2025 blood pressure guideline encourages a check at least once a year.
If you had gestational diabetes
Even if your blood sugar returned to normal, you have a higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes. The American Diabetes Association recommends a glucose tolerance test 4 to 12 weeks after birth. If it is normal, keep getting checked for prediabetes or type 2 diabetes every 1 to 3 years.