Where your DNA places you among other people, and the studies behind it.
Not tailored to your result, and not medical advice
Know The Warning Signs: Preeclampsia is usually picked up at routine antenatal checks through raised blood pressure and protein in the urine, often before a woman feels unwell at all. The NHS lists symptoms worth urgent attention: a severe headache that does not ease with simple painkillers, blurred vision or flashing lights, pain below the ribs, sudden swelling of the face, hands or feet, vomiting, and generally feeling very unwell. These can also appear in the days or weeks after birth, not only during pregnancy. If any of them show up, contacting a maternity team straight away is the right next step. NHS
Manage Weight Before Conceiving: In a high-risk US birth cohort followed across successive pregnancies, prepregnancy obesity, chronic hypertension and diabetes were each associated with developing preeclampsia. Women with obesity had roughly double the risk of a first preeclampsia (unadjusted RR 2.2, 95% CI 1.1 to 4.5), and among women who had already had preeclampsia, prepregnancy overweight or obesity was linked to about three times the risk of recurrence (unadjusted RR 3.0, 95% CI 1.4 to 6.6 and RR 3.1, 95% CI 1.5 to 6.7). These are unadjusted figures from a single cohort, so they do not separate body weight from the other risk factors it tends to travel with. Body weight before conception is still one of the few preeclampsia risk factors that is genuinely modifiable, and it is easier to act on before a pregnancy than during one. Journal of the American Heart Association (PMC)
Be Active Before Pregnancy: A meta-analysis of observational studies found that women who were most physically active before pregnancy had lower preeclampsia risk than the least active, with a summary RR of 0.65 (95% CI 0.47 to 0.89) across 5 studies. The association was present but weaker for activity in early pregnancy (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.70 to 0.91 across 11 studies), and both walking and higher intensity activity were inversely associated with risk. There was a dose-response pattern, with risk falling by roughly a quarter per additional daily hour of prepregnancy activity before the curve flattened. These are observational data, so unmeasured differences between active and inactive women could account for part of the effect. Epidemiology (PubMed)
Understand The Limits Of Prevention: An umbrella review covering 23 systematic reviews and 63 randomised trials found that structured exercise during pregnancy reduced gestational hypertension (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.71 across 22 trials) but did not significantly reduce preeclampsia itself (OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.61 to 1.07 across 20 trials). The authors note that preeclampsia occurs in only about 1.4 to 4 percent of pregnancies, so the trials carried too little information to settle the question rather than having disproved a benefit. Preeclampsia is also thought to begin early, in how the placenta and the uterine spiral arteries that supply it develop, which limits how much any behavior started later in pregnancy can shift. BJOG (PMC)
Get Calcium From Food: Calcium is the dietary factor with the strongest randomised trial evidence in preeclampsia. A Cochrane review of 13 trials in 15,730 women found that calcium supplementation during pregnancy was associated with less than half the rate of preeclampsia (average RR 0.45, 95% CI 0.31 to 0.65), and the effect was largest in populations with low dietary calcium intake (average RR 0.36, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.65 across 8 trials). Those trials tested supplements rather than food, and Cochrane rated the evidence low quality, noting the benefit may be overstated by small-study effects. Calcium-rich foods include dairy, tinned fish with bones, and leafy greens, and whether anything beyond a normal diet is useful is a question worth putting to a clinician who knows the individual situation. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (PMC)
How much of this is genetic?
Genetics explains 35% of why people differ in this trait. The rest is environment, daily habits and chance.
Heritability estimate: Cnattingius et al. 2004, Am J Med Genet A
Background and further reading
Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-specific disorder defined by new-onset high blood pressure after 20 weeks of gestation, accompanied by proteinuria or evidence of organ dysfunction such as impaired kidney or liver function, low platelets, or neurological symptoms. It affects roughly 2-8% of pregnancies worldwide and is a leading cause of maternal and fetal illness [1]. Warning signs can include severe headache, visual disturbances, sudden swelling of the face and hands, and pain below the ribs. If untreated it can progress to eclampsia (seizures) or HELLP syndrome. Delivery of the baby and placenta remains the only definitive cure, so management centers on monitoring and timing of birth [1].
Genetic Basis: Preeclampsia clusters in families, and a large Swedish population study estimated that genetic factors account for slightly more than half of the variation in susceptibility, with the pregnant person's own (maternal) genes contributing the largest single share (about 35%) and the fetal genome contributing as well (about 20%) [2]. Both maternal and fetal genetics matter because the disorder originates in the placenta, an organ built from fetal tissue. A genome-wide association study by the InterPregGen consortium identified a fetal risk variant near FLT1, the gene encoding the anti-angiogenic protein sFlt-1 that is released by a poorly perfused placenta and drives the maternal high-blood-pressure syndrome [3]. Maternal risk overlaps substantially with genetic predisposition to chronic hypertension, implicating blood-pressure regulating loci.
Clinical and Environmental Factors: Many non-genetic factors influence who develops preeclampsia. Well-established contributors include a first pregnancy, a prior history of preeclampsia, chronic hypertension, pre-existing or gestational diabetes, obesity, kidney disease, autoimmune conditions such as lupus or antiphospholipid syndrome, carrying multiples, and older maternal age [1]. Because the disorder can develop quickly, routine prenatal care includes regular blood-pressure and urine checks. For pregnancies judged to be at elevated risk, obstetric guidelines describe preventive measures such as low-dose aspirin started in the first or early second trimester; whether these apply to any individual is a decision for the pregnant person and their maternity care provider [4].
The published research behind your score, and the variants it draws on.
2 published scores from 2 studies
The preeclampsia score combines 2 polygenic scores drawn from 2 published studies.
These traits are influenced by some of the same genes and variants as this one
Content updated August 2026.
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