Taking birth-control pills or getting pregnant can raise your risk for stroke. Women have unique risk factors they might not be aware of, according to new stroke-prevention guidelines issued by medical groups. Read on to learn what you can do to avoid this often-fatal event...
Women, pay more attention to your risk for stroke.
On Feb. 6, the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association released new guidelines that, for the first time, address stroke prevention in women.
Although conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes can raise the likelihood of this potentially fatal event, so can taking birth-control pills or hormone-replacement therapy or becoming pregnant.
"I'm thrilled that [these organizations] are finally bringing attention to the fact that more women than men have strokes, they fare worse afterward and more often die from them," says cardiologist Holly Andersen, M.D., director of education and outreach at the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City.
About 425,000 U.S. women suffer a stroke each year, compared with about 375,000 men, Dr. Andersen notes. It's the fourth-leading cause of death for all Americans and the third-leading cause for women, after heart disease and cancer.
"Until now, [stroke care for women] has been like mopping up the floor with the faucet left wide open," she adds. "We want to prevent stroke, not wait until one happens."
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