Eighty-eight women visiting a gynecologist were tested for an estrogen receptor B-variant allele. The women were ethnically and racially homogeneous to a large degree. They were from a suburb of Long Island, and most were white. The 12% incidence of hypertension in women with the estrogen receptor wild-type allele is comparable to the 13-32% incidence in the general population of women aged 55-64 years. However, the 48% incidence of hypertension in women with the estrogen receptor B-variant allele is considerably higher than in the general population of women in this age group. We conclude that the presence of the estrogen receptor B-variant allele might have increased the prevalence of hypertension in the women in this study.