Conversion therapy might harm a young person’s long-term heart health, a new study says.

Young adults assigned male at birth were nearly three times as likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure if they’d been exposed to conversion therapy, a discredited practice that attempts to alter a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, researchers reported this month in JAMA Network Open.

These young adults also had higher levels of inflammation and elevated blood pressure levels, both of which are potentially damaging to heart health, researchers report.

“This is the first study, to our knowledge, to document elevated blood pressure and systemic inflammation, important factors shaping the risk of adverse cardiovascular health outcomes, among sexual and gender minority people exposed to (conversion therapy),” concluded the research team led by senior author Brian Mustanski, director of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern University in Chicago.

For the study, researchers analyzed health data on more than 700 young adults assigned male gender at birth, of whom 23% were transgender or gender diverse.

About 10% of participants said they’d been put through conversion therapy, which tries to alter same-sex attractions or change gender identity.

Researchers tested heart health measures including blood pressure and blood markers for inflammation, and asked participants if they’d been diagnosed with high blood pressure.

People sent through conversion therapy were nearly 2.9 times as likely to have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, even though their average age was around 27.

The blood of these individuals also was more likely to show more markers for inflammation.