Interviewer: We all know that a stroke is a serious and potentially life-threatening situation, but it might surprise you that it impacts women more than men. According to the CDC, stroke is the fifth leading cause of death for women in the U.S., and as many as one in five women between the ages of 55 and 75 will have a stroke.
To help us better understand why women face an increased risk of stroke, were joined by Dr. Jana Wold, an associate professor of neurology and a stroke specialist at University of Utah Health.
Dr. Wold, let's start out with why are women at more risk of stroke than men?
Dr. Wold: So the best way to understand it is because women live longer than men and because stroke risk increases with age. So because we have a larger proportion of the population in this older age group, the greater-than-85-years-old age group that are women, and also that's when your stroke risk really ramps up, overall more women have strokes than men.
Interviewer: So I'm hearing that more older women might have strokes than men. What about younger women?
Dr. Wold: Unfortunately, there is a risk of stroke in pregnancy. So, at a younger age, there also is a brief period of time when women are of childbearing age that their stroke risk could be higher than some men.
Interviewer: Yeah. And that is very unique, childbearing, to women obviously. What are some other risk factors that are very unique to women versus men?
Dr. Wold: Yeah. So women take oral contraceptives. Not all women, but some women do. And those medications, unfortunately, do carry a small risk of stroke. So in the wide scheme of things, it's a very small risk.
And women who take oral contraceptives tend to be women younger than the age of 50, so their overall risk of stroke is low, but if you are taking oral contraceptives, that can double your stroke risk. And if you are smoking while you are taking your oral contraceptives, that can dramatically increase your stroke risk.
Also, in speaking of oral contraceptives, oral contraceptives should not be given to women who have migraine with aura because that also increases your stroke risk, because migraine with aura independently increases your stroke risk.
Hormone replacement therapy. So if you are taking hormone replacement therapy for a long period of time, this also can increase your risk of stroke. There was a time many years ago when we thought maybe taking hormone replacement could actually decrease your risk of stroke, and that is not true.
The other important thing that I haven't mentioned yet — atrial fibrillation. So atrial fibrillation carries a high risk of stroke. It is uncommon in the younger population, but as you age, your risk for atrial fibrillation increases. And it's actually riskier for women to have atrial fibrillation than it is for men when you consider their stroke risk. So atrial fibrillation, you can be screened for this in your doctor's office when you are above the age of 75.
Interviewer: So if a woman's listening and she recognized some of these increased risk factors, does that mean that perhaps hormone therapy is not a great idea, birth control is not a great idea? How can a woman weigh the risk versus the benefits of those things?
Dr. Wold: Yes, absolutely. So this is where your primary care doctor comes into play. Everyone should have a primary care doctor whether or not you're a woman or a man, and you need to discuss this with your primary care doctor.
So, for example, if you are a young woman and you're considering going on oral contraceptives, you need to make sure that your physician is aware if you suffer from migraine with aura or if you are a current smoker or if you have high blood pressure. So you need to be in good communication with your primary care physician to make sure that they are also considering your overall risk of stroke.
When it comes to hormone replacement therapy, again, I would have a conversation with your primary care physician or whichever physician would be prescribing this treatment for you. And you would just need to understand the risks and the benefits, because it's going to be different for different women.
Interviewer: And I understand that women sometimes don't experience the standard stroke symptoms. What are those standard symptoms?
Dr. Wold: Yeah. So the standard stroke symptoms, the way we like to remember them is an acronym known as FAST. This stands for face, arm, speech, time.
Face is for that facial asymmetry that you were speaking of before. So if your face is droopy on one side, that can be a symptom of stroke.
Also, if you have one arm that is weak, that can be a symptom of stroke.
And then if you have a change in your speech, that can be a symptom of stroke as well.
The T is for time, because if you notice any of those symptoms, you need to immediately call 911 and go to the emergency room to be evaluated.
Interviewer: And those standard symptoms, those aren't necessarily always the way women experience stroke symptoms. Can you expand on that?
Dr. Wold: Not necessarily. There are some studies showing that women are more likely to have atypical symptoms of stroke, but it's not clearly defined what those would be. So, overall, I would say when you experience any sort of acute change in your vision or your speech or your strength or your walking, that's when you need to consider stroke.
Interviewer: And are there other risk factors that women would want to keep in mind?
Dr. Wold: I would just consider changes in those areas. And a lot of women, also men, like to call their neighbor, call their son, call their daughter. I would encourage you to call 911 when you notice those symptoms.
Interviewer: Right. Because the tricky thing about stroke is it can kind of trick you, can't it?
Dr. Wold: It can. And the medications that we can provide in the emergency room, there's one medication and it's time sensitive, so you need to get to the emergency room very quickly.
Interviewer: Dr. Wold, in your experience, what are some of the misconceptions that you find that people have when it comes to women and stroke?
Dr. Wold: I think a misconception can be that there's nothing that you can do about your risk for stroke, and because the risk of stroke increases as you age, that it sort of is just inevitable, and that once you have a stroke, then you need to try to prevent the second one. But we as stroke physicians would certainly like people to be interested in preventing that first stroke, which you certainly can do.
Interviewer: If there's a woman listening and she might be worried now about her risk of stroke, what takeaway message would you give to them?
Dr. Wold: The takeaway message would be to know what your independent risk is for stroke, and so to consider if you have high blood pressure. If you have high blood pressure, you need to be under the care of a physician. You need to have it properly treated. And if you are a smoker, you should consider stopping smoking.
The other thing that you can do as far as lifestyle measures are concerned is to exercise regularly, and we mean cardiovascular exercise, and also keep a healthy diet that is high in fruits and vegetables.
