Pregnancy, childbirth, female hormones can all influence lifelong risk, experts say
WebMD News from HealthDay
By Mary Brophy Marcus
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Feb. 6, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- For the first time, guidelines have been created to help prevent stroke in women.
The author of the new guidelines, published online Feb. 6 and in the May print issue of the journal Stroke, said women share a lot of stroke risk factors with men -- namely high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking and obesity -- but they also have a set of unique concerns that need to be addressed.
Pregnancy, childbirth and hormones play a role in stroke risk for women, explained Dr. Cheryl Bushnell, director of the Stroke Center at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, in Winston-Salem, N.C.
"The basic message is that women live longer, and so they actually have a higher lifetime risk of stroke," Bushnell said. "They also tend to do worse after they have had a stroke. They're more likely to end up in long-term nursing care and have a worse quality of life. For those reasons, we thought it was important to emphasize prevention and to start those strategies early in the childbearing years for women."
A stroke happens when a blood vessel that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain is either blocked by a clot or it bursts, keeping oxygen from reaching the brain, and killing brain cells, according to the American Stroke Association.
Each year, about 55,000 more women than men experience a stroke, and non-Hispanic black women are most at risk, the American Heart Association reports.
According to Dr. Andrew Russman, a neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic's Cerebrovascular Center, "They did a good job putting the guidelines on paper. I think it's terribly important that there's now a set of guidelines that help women understand some of their unique stroke risks, which change throughout life -- from pregnancy, through menopause and later in life."
Bushnell said she and colleagues scoured the existing scientific literature to develop the new guidelines, which include recommendations for women of all ages.
"There's risk across a woman's lifespan," said Bushnell. "Without a doubt, the highest risk is as women get older, especially as they accumulate other risk factors," such as high blood pressure.
But, she added, while complications from stroke are rare during pregnancy, that's when the first signs of vascular disease can appear. She said women who have eclampsia and preeclampsia during pregnancy (a dangerous condition marked by high blood pressure), for example, are at twice the risk for stroke later in life and four times the risk for high blood pressure later.
Bushnell added that taking birth control pills can raise a woman's risk for stroke, especially in middle age. And women who get migraines with aura are also at higher risk, so they need to consider preventive strategies earlier in life.
source : New Guidelines Aim to Lower Stroke Risk in Women
