This study examines change in systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and total serum cholesterol over a three-year span in two groups of men aged 55-74 years at follow-up: 1) 262 men who were working at baseline but retired at follow-up, and 2) 409 age peers who remained employed at both measurement times. Measures were obtained from medical examinations conducted since the early 1970s as part of the prospective Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study in Boston. Regression analyses showed an average increase of 3.44 mmHg in systolic blood pressure, 1.62 mmHg in diastolic blood pressure, and 5.56 mg/dl in cholesterol for retirees compared with workers. The relative increases in the blood pressure variables were statistically significant. However, a logistic regression analysis did not show a greater incidence of hypertension among retirees compared with workers. The odds ratio, standardized for baseline blood pressure, body mass index, and age, was 0.90 (95 per cent confidence interval 0.56-1.45). Among retirees only, analyses of covariance showed that levels of blood pressure and cholesterol were comparable from one six-month interval to the next in the three years preceding and following retirement. Overall, the effects of retirement were not of sufficient magnitude to conclude that retirement had a clinically significant impact on blood pressure or cholesterol.