Stroke Symptoms In Women

2023 Author: Wallace Forman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 11:04

Stroke in women

Women are on average 74 years old when they have a stroke. Men are usually affected earlier, at around 69 years of age. The strokes in women are often more severe than in men, because the cause of a stroke in women is much more often a cardiac arrhythmia. In addition, a stroke sometimes expresses itself differently in women than in men. Symptoms that are less common and that a stroke is not immediately thought of will often occur…

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Stroke is more severe in women

In women, large areas of the brain are usually affected by a stroke. This increases the likelihood that particularly important functions of the brain will be impaired. As a result, women are less likely than men to manage their normal everyday life completely independently after an acute stroke. Only every second stroke patient can fully resume everyday activities within three months of being discharged from the hospital, compared with around 70 percent of men, according to the German Stroke Foundation, citing an American study.

In addition, women are more often affected by a particularly problematic type of stroke. Because the cause of a stroke in women is much more often a cardiac arrhythmia, which often manifests itself as atrial fibrillation. This creates a blood clot in the heart, which is carried into the brain with the bloodstream and blocks a blood vessel.

Women often have different symptoms than men

The acute symptoms of a stroke depend on which brain region is affected and to what extent. Typical symptoms include a sudden feeling of weakness or paralysis in one half of the body, speech or vision disorders or severe dizziness.

However, women often also describe additional, rarer symptoms that do not immediately suggest a stroke. These include sudden headache or body aches, nausea, confusion or even completely atypical signs such as chest pain, difficulty swallowing and shortness of breath.

Since a stroke in women is more likely to have different, atypical symptoms than in men, there may be differences in medical care. Some experts believe that once symptoms have set in, it may take longer for women to come to the hospital after a stroke. However, the study situation is not clear, as reported by the German Stroke Foundation.