Scientists from The George Institute for Global Health found that although the ‘classic’ early signs of a stroke such as problems with movement and speech occur in both women and men, women are more likely to have more generalized symptoms, like confusion and weakness.
The research was conducted by Dr. Sultana Shajahan et al.
A stroke occurs when there is a sudden loss of blood supply to a localized area of the brain and is the second major cause of disability globally.
Women experience worse post-stroke disability and are more than three times as likely to be institutionalized after a stroke than men.
Early diagnosis is vital in the management of acute stroke, but previous studies have shown that women are more likely to experience delays, resulting in worse outcomes.
In the study, the team analyzed data on a total of 36,636 people diagnosed with stroke from 21 studies that were conducted mostly in the United States or Europe, with results published between 2002 and 2020.
Between 45 and 55 percent of participants in most studies were women, and they were generally older than men when presenting with stroke (average age of 62 to 79 years versus 58 to 70 years for men).
The researchers found that women had a higher risk than men of presenting with some more generalized symptoms not linked to a specific area of the brain such as confusion, fatigue, weakness, headache, loss of consciousness, and mental status change.
Women also had a lower risk of some symptoms that are linked to particular parts of the brain, such as difficulty speaking, changes to their ability to walk in the usual way, and being unsteady on their feet.
The team says one of the possible reasons for a delay could be sex differences in stroke symptoms when first presenting to a healthcare professional.
Women who experience a stroke are more likely than men to initially be given a non-stroke diagnosis, and this could be because they don’t always display what could be considered the ‘classical’ symptoms of stroke as often as men do.
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