Women Higher risks for a stroke

More women than men suffer stroke

08/03/2014

More women than men suffer a stroke each year. They also have additional risk factors that increase the risk of a brain stroke. These include taking birth control pills or migraine attacks.

Women have higher stroke risk
In Germany suffer according to the online portal „MyHandicap“ Every year about 270,000 people have a stroke. About 55 percent of them are women. The situation is similar in the USA, which is why two American medical societies have been induced to issue special women's guidelines on stroke prevention. In demography, one reason for the increased risk for women is because they get older and the risk of stroke increases with age. For example, in Germany women are on average 75 years old if they have a stroke and men about 68 years. General risk factors are smoking for both sexes, high alcohol consumption, low exercise, overweight or lipid metabolism disorders. As the evaluation of studies showed, there are other circumstances for women in addition to the age, which lead to the different numbers in the sexes.

Special recommendations for contraception
For example, American doctors give prevention recommendations to younger women in particular, such as contraception. It is only after a high blood pressure study that birth control pills should be prescribed to young women, as the use of hormones associated with hypertension has been shown to be a particular risk factor for stroke. Pregnant women with high blood pressure should even take a small dose of acetylsalicylic acid (e.g., aspirin) until birth to inhibit blood clotting. The majority of strokes are so-called ischemic brain infarctions, which are caused by a reduced blood flow in the brain.

Migraine with aura
Another factor that increases the risk of stroke in women is migraine. Although this is not a woman-specific disease, it occurs in women significantly more often than in men. The migraine with aura announces itself through perceptual disorders or motor failures and those affected suddenly have the feeling of being blinded. Although this only slightly increases the risk, migraine with aura in connection with smoking poses a danger. Therefore, it is not only the American doctors who advise to quit smoking. Depression and emotional stress are also more important in women and increase their stroke risk more than men do.

Hormones during menopause
Hormone replacement therapy has long been controversial, with several studies showing that menopausal hormones can increase the risk of breast cancer or heart attack, as well as thrombosis and stroke. However, there are now fewer reservations about the use of estrogens and progestins, as the experts now know that the risks vary from woman to woman. As the endocrinologist Christian J. Thaler, head of the hormone and fertility center of the LMU in Munich opposite „mirror“ explained, it must be decided individually whether hormone therapy is necessary or not. Such therapy with low-dose hormones under medical supervision could be beneficial in severe conditions such as sleep disorders, violent sweats and depression, which are effectively treatable with no other drugs. However, in women with osteoporosis, hormones are just one of several options.

Atrial fibrillation can increase risk five-fold
Apparently, Diabetes Type-2 is one of the women's specific influencing factors, as a recent study in the medical journal „Diabetologia“ show. The researchers found that the disease only increases the risk of stroke in women: the higher the long-term sugar value HbA1c and the age, the higher the risk. In addition, gestational diabetes is another female risk factor, as it leads to about 50 percent of cases after pregnancy to a type 2 diabetes and thus increases the risk of stroke. Another gender difference is that in women, atrial fibrillation is much more common than in men. Stroke risk can increase by as much as five times as a result of cardiac arrhythmia, which can cause blood clots to form in the heart. Women whose only risk factor for a stroke is atrial fibrillation would not have to take any anticoagulant medication, over 65 -year-old usually already. And even with successful treatment of atrial fibrillation is recommended by experts for permanent blood clotting by appropriate drugs, as the atrial fibrillation usually occurs again. (Ad)