Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor LETTERS TO THE EDITOR RE: “RISK FACTORS FOR UTERINE LEIOMYOMA: A PRACTICE-BASED CASE-CONTROL STUDY. II. ATHEROGENIC RISK FACTORS AND POTENTIAL SOURCES OF UTERINE IRRITATION”

The study by Faerstein et al. in the January 2001 issue of the Journal (1) was very interesting and demonstrated the impor-tance of uterine leiomyomas (UL), or fibroids, in women’s health. The epidemiology of UL has for too long been under-studied. Faerstein et al. stated that the coexistence of UL with hyper-tension was noted in some studies conducted between the 1930s and the 1970s (1). However, the study by Faerstein et al. failed to refer to relevant studies carried out since the 1970s that have also noted a correlation between hysterectomy with ovarian preservation and hypertension (2–5). The rationale of these studies has been the indication for hysterectomy, UL, which explains the correlation of UL with hypertension rather than with the operation itself. In our Finnish population-based cohort study (n = 3,895)