Women and Stroke Risk Factors

Risk factors that you cannot control include:

• Increasing age. As women age, the risk of stroke rises and keeps rising with age.
• Sex (Gender): More women die of stroke than men—60 percent of total stroke deaths occur in women.
• Heredity (Family history): Women (and men) are more likely to have a stroke if their close blood relatives have had a stroke.
• Race: African American women have a greater incidence of stroke and are more likely to die of a stroke than Caucasian women.
• Previous stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA or mini-stroke): A previous stroke or TIA is a predictor of future stroke.

Risk factors for women (and men) that can be modified, treated or controlled by lifestyle changes or medicine include:

• High blood pressure
• High blood cholesterol
• Smoking
• Diabetes
• Overweight/obesity
• Physical inactivity
• Excess alcohol intake
• Atrial fibrillation
• Carotid artery disease

Risk factors unique to women include:

• Birth control pills
• Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a combined hormone therapy of progestin and estrogen, to relieve menopausal symptoms
• Pregnancy: stroke risk increases during a normal pregnancy due to natural changes in the body such as increased blood pressure and stress on the heart
• A thick waist and high triglyceride (blood fat) level: post-menopausal women with a waist size larger than 35.2 inches and a triglyceride level higher than 128 milligrams per liter may have a five-fold increased risk for stroke
• Migraine headaches: migraine headaches with aura (visual disturbances such as flashing dots or blind spots) can increase a woman's stroke risk 3 to 6 times, and most Americans who suffer migraines are women

Contact

Center for Women's Cardiovascular Health
1-866 662-8467 (toll free)

Information line
312-MYHEART (694-3278)