Stroke in women is more common than men

According to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, stroke is one of the leading causes of death in Indonesia, which reached 15.4%. Stroke is ranked third as a deadly disease in women. Even out of 100 cases of stroke, 60 of them occur in women. I wonder why stroke in women is more susceptible than men?

Why do strokes in women occur more often?

A person's risk for having a stroke can increase with age. Well, the average age of women is longer than men, because this is because the risk of stroke can be higher in women. Women are also usually more susceptible to autoimmune diseases.

A number of inflammatory disorders can also cause damage to blood vessels or blood clots that increase the risk of having a stroke. Some types of migraine can also increase strokes in women. And women are also generally more prone to migraines.

A recent study even shows a surprising fact that women with obesity problems are far more prone to stroke than obese men. The study, which was conducted in the UK and published in the journal Neurology, involved data from 1.3 million women in the UK with an average age of 57 years.

Of all these participants, more than 344 thousand of them are women with normal body mass index, more than 228 thousand of them are obese women with a body mass index of 30, and more than 20 thousand of them are at risk of having a stroke.

How can women prevent stroke?

These women have been followed by the development of their health conditions for more than 12 years. The results found that those who are overweight or obese are at risk of having a hemorrhagic stroke, a condition in which blood vessels in the brain break down and is very dangerous for a person because it can make the supply of blood and oxygen to the brain stop.

From this study, it is known that there are more than 2,200 women who are at risk of experiencing ischemic stroke and more than 1,500 women are at risk of having a hemorrhagic stroke from the data of 344 thousand women with normal weight. Meanwhile, out of obese women, there are nearly 2,400 women at risk for ischemic stroke and 910 people at risk for hemorrhagic stroke.

This means, for every woman whose body mass index increases by five points, the risk of having an ischemic stroke can increase by up to 21 percent. It is better for women to maintain their ideal body weight so as not to have this deadly stroke.

What are the symptoms of a stroke that need to be watched out for?

Symptoms of stroke in women that you should be aware of are difficulty speaking, numbness in the legs, arms and face, sudden headaches, difficulty walking, fainting, vomiting, and confusion. If you experience these signs, contact your doctor immediately for proper treatment.