Concomitant gestational diabetes and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy more than double the long-term risk of heart disease in the postpartum period, a new study confirms.

Women with both conditions had an elevated risk of CVD even after accounting for postpartum diabetes and hypertension, the Canadian-led research found.

Overall, patients with both gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and gestational hypertensive disorders were 2.4 times more likely to develop CVD in the “late” postpartum phase — beyond five years — than women without either pregnancy complication.

“The systematic identification of both [conditions] … offers an opportunity for a more effective CVD prevention among young women of childbearing age,” the authors wrote in JAMA Network Open.