It has been proposed that hyperinsulinemia may not constitute a cardiovascular risk in women, and that the metabolic risk profile is less apparent in women than in men. In two different studies, we have assessed the interrelationship between classical coronary risk factors in women with untreated essential hypertension and looked for possible hypertensive-normotensive differences. Hypertensive women (HT1, 156 +/- 2/98 +/- 1 mm Hg, n = 18) in study I turned out to be overweight and had nearly three times higher fasting serum insulin levels than the normotensive control subjects (NT1, 118 +/- 3/77 +/- 2 mm Hg, n = 9). HT1 women with a body mass index (BMI) above 25 kg/m2 had significant higher insulin levels than HT1 women with a BMI less than 25 kg/m2, and when adjusting for BMI the hypertensive-normotensive difference in insulin levels was lost. In HT1 women, the serum insulin level correlated positively to the BMI and triglycerides. In study II, insulin was positively associated with the systolic blood pressure in HTII women (150 +/- 3/99 +/- 1 mm Hg, n = 29), and a negative correlation appeared between the glucose/insulin ratio and the systolic as well as diastolic blood pressure. No difference was observed in BMI and insulin between HTII and NTII women (121 +/- 3/79 +/- 1 mm Hg, n = 18). In HTII women, plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1) levels were higher and the euglobulin clot lysis time prolonged compared to NTII women. PAI-1 was positively correlated to insulin and triglycerides and negatively to high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in HTII women. Strong associations between potential cardiovascular risk factors seem to be present even in untreated women with mild hypertension, with insulin being correlated to hypertension, BMI, fibrinolytic activity, triglycerides, and HDL cholesterol.