FYI: Women suffer more disabling strokes than men and need to become better aware of their unique risk factors, including pregnancy complications and the use of oral contraceptives, according to recommendations released Thursday by the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association. The stroke prevention guidelines — the first to be released specifically for women — also point to risk factors more common in women, such as migraines with aura, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Such differences could point to why strokes are the third leading cause of death in women but only the fifth leading cause of death in men. “These new guidelines are a call to action that doctors really need to be focusing more on women when it comes to stroke prevention,” said Dr. Shazam Hussain, head of the Stroke Section at the Cleveland Clinic, who was not involved with developing the guidelines. About 3 percent of Americans have lived through strokes, with many suffering permanent health problems such as impaired speech, memory loss, or paralysis. Women who develop dangerous hypertension during pregnancy, known as preeclampsia, have twice the risk of having a stroke later in life compared with those who had healthy pregnancies.

Stroke prevention guidelines highlight special risks for women - Health & wellness - The Boston Globe: "The guidelines, published in the journal Stroke, advise doctors to consider preeclampsia to be a stroke risk factor akin to smoking, high cholesterol, and obesity because it’s likely to lead to hypertension years after the pregnancy."



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