Preeclampsia Risk Quiz

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy complication defined by new-onset high blood pressure — 140/90 or higher, using ACOG's threshold — that develops at or after 20 weeks of pregnancy (or after delivery), usually alongside signs that organs like the kidneys or liver are under stress. It can develop quickly and sometimes without obvious symptoms, which is exactly why blood pressure is checked at every prenatal visit. Untreated, it can become dangerous for both you and the baby, but caught early it is very manageable — monitoring, blood-pressure treatment, and well-timed delivery are all effective. Knowing your risk profile and the warning signs is the practical half of prevention.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's 2021 recommendation is that people at high risk of preeclampsia use low-dose aspirin — 81 mg daily — as a preventive medication, started after 12 weeks of pregnancy (ideally before 16 weeks). High risk means any one factor from its high-risk list: prior preeclampsia, twins or more, chronic hypertension, pre-existing type 1 or 2 diabetes, kidney disease, or an autoimmune condition like lupus or antiphospholipid syndrome. Having several moderate-risk factors can add up to the same decision. Crucially, this is a decision made with your provider — this quiz tells you whether the conversation fits your history, never to start aspirin on your own.

Because the USPSTF includes them on its moderate-risk-factor list — and it is explicit about why. Black patients in the U.S. experience higher rates of preeclampsia and worse outcomes from it, and the Task Force frames Black race as a marker of the systemic inequities and unequal access to care that drive that gap, not as a biological difference. Lower income appears for similar reasons. Including them means people who bear more of the risk are more likely to be offered a cheap, effective preventive. Answering is entirely up to you, and like everything here your answer never leaves your device.

The Preeclampsia Foundation's core warning signs are: a severe headache that won't go away; vision changes such as spots, flashing lights, or blurring; pain in the upper right belly or under the ribs; sudden swelling of the face or hands or sudden weight gain; and a noticeable decrease in your baby's movements. If you're 20 weeks or more and any of these appear, call your provider or labor and delivery right away — don't wait for your next appointment. And a blood-pressure reading of 160/110 or higher is severe-range hypertension at any point in pregnancy: that is an emergency-now situation, not a note for your next visit.

No — not on your own, even though low-dose aspirin is available over the counter. The right move is to bring your risk factors to your provider and ask whether the USPSTF aspirin recommendation applies to you. There are real reasons this is a shared decision: the timing matters (it's started after 12 weeks), the dose matters (81 mg, not regular-strength aspirin), and a small number of people have reasons not to take it, such as an aspirin allergy or bleeding concerns. Your provider may also know things about your history this quiz can't ask. Screening higher-risk here means you have a specific, evidence-backed question to ask — that's the win.

Yes. This quiz runs entirely in your browser: your answers are scored on your own device and are never sent to a server, saved, or shared — close the tab and they're gone. In a post-Dobbs world we treat reproductive-health data as sensitive by default, so this tool simply never collects any. It's general educational information based on published USPSTF, ACOG, and Preeclampsia Foundation guidance; it isn't medical advice, a diagnosis, or a substitute for the blood-pressure checks at your prenatal visits.