United States: Standard guidelines for stroke have incorporated risks relevant to women only recently.
New stroke prevention guidelines have been issued by the American Stroke Association, a unit of the American Heart Association this week for the first time in ten years. This guideline aims at primary prevention or preventing strokes in people who have never had them, and it has a section dealing with stroke risk factors by sex and gender, as reported by The Hills.
Recognizing Female-Specific Stroke Risks
ASA includes factors such as endometriosis and early menopause, such as hypercholesterolemia and hypertension, as risk factors for stroke.
“Among those with endometriosis, studies have shown a consistently increased risk of stroke,” the guidelines read. “Young individuals with endometriosis are a subgroup who might benefit from enhanced attention to cardiovascular risk assessment and prevention strategies.”
A stroke is often achieved when a blood vessel supplying the brain is clogged by a blood clot and as a result the affected brain tissue dies due to lack of blood supply. Annual reports by the CDC state that there is more than 795,000 strokes or cases of stroke occurring in the United States and regarding cardiovascular diseases, 1 in 6 deaths is due to stroke.
Data presented by the American Heart Association indicate that youth strokes have been on the rise in the last thirty years.
On average, it is estimated that among the 795,000 people in the country having a stroke every year, between 10% to 15% are aged between 18 to 44 years old.
Rise in Youth Stroke Rates
Those growing stroke rates might be connected to growing rates of diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and sedentary lifestyles in young Americans, per stroke neurologist Joshua Willey at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
The guidelines also indicate that women who use combined hormonal contraception – or contraceptives that include estrogen and progestin — are more likely to experience a stroke, as reported by The Hills.
The Role of Hormonal Therapies
The guidelines indicate that women under estrogen-based hormone therapy treatments are at some risk of Cardiovascular diseases. Those risks are primarily concerning ‘‘oral’’ hormone therapy, although topical estrogen treatments do not seem to pose any risk for stroke.
