A new Medicare item for GPs could be key to finally addressing the “major” public health issue of higher CVD risk among women who have hypertension during pregnancy, say Australian experts.

Women who experience gestational hypertension or pre-eclampsia are currently falling through the gaps when it comes to CVD prevention, according to obstetric, cardiology and renal experts.

Such women are left with a 2-3 times higher risk of developing chronic hypertension in the next 15 years, and double the odds of CVD, says the team led by Associate Professor Gregory Davis from the school of women and children’s health at the University of NSW.

“The diagnosis of hypertension [disorders] in pregnancy is a unique opportunity to identify young women at higher risk of CVD,” they write in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.