A set of new guidelines was released Thursday to prevent stroke in women. The recommendations were given by the American Heart Association (AHA) and American Stroke Association (ASA).
Stroke is the rapid loss of brain function due to absence of blood flow, which could happen if the blood vessels carrying oxygen and other nutrients to the brain are blocked or ruptured. Loss of blood supply for 60 to 90 minutes leads to the death of brain cells, causing irreversible brain damage.
It has a lot of modifiable risk factors applicable to both men and women -- diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, obesity and drug use. However, there are more contributing factors for women - hormones, pregnancy, and childbirth.
Hormonal treatment, in a form of birth control pill, can increase risk of stroke in women because it increases tendency of blood clot formation.
In the new set of guidelines of stroke for women, it was stated that every women who want to take birth control pills should be screened for high blood pressure first. It is because these pills can increase risks of stroke in women as it increases the tendency of blood clot formation.
"Birth control pills will increase the body's tendency to form clots, so that somebody who is already prone to do that, it's going to make this problem much, much worse," said Jennifer Lynch, a neurologist at Ferrell-Duncan Clinic to CoxHealth.
If a woman has a history of high blood pressure, she should be considered for either calcium supplementation or low-dose aspirin therapy during pregnancy to reduce the risk of developing hypertensive disorders.
Pregnant women who suffer from preeclampsia and eclampsia, which are both characterized by high blood pressure, are four times at risk of being hypertensive late in her life and twice at risk for stroke.
Additional recommendations state that women who suffer from migraines with aura, which is characterized by seeing a strange light, smelling unpleasant odor, or having confusing thoughts or experiences, must avoid or quit smoking. Women who are 75 years old and above, on the other hand, should undergo electrocardiogram (ECG) to check for atrial fibrillation risks or heart rhythm disorder.
"There's risk across a woman's lifespan," said Dr. Cheryl Bushnell, director of the Stroke Center at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, in Winston-Salem, N.C., told HealthDay. "Without a doubt, the highest risk is as women get older, especially as they accumulate other risk factors," such as high blood pressure.
The new set of guidelines was published online in the Feb. 6 issue of the journal Stroke.
