Birth control pills cause a small but significant increase in the risk of the most common type of stroke, according to a comprehensive report in the journal MedLink Neurology.
For healthy young women without any stroke risk factors, the risk of stroke associated with oral contraceptives is small. But in women with other stroke risk factors, "the risk seems higher and, in most cases, oral contraceptive use should be discouraged report co-authors.
Oral contraceptives increase the risk of ischemic strokes, which are caused by blood clots and account for about 85 percent of all strokes. In the general population, oral contraceptives do not appear to increase the risk of hemorrhagic strokes, which are caused by bleeding in the brain.
There are about 4.4 ischemic strokes for every 100,000 women of childbearing age. Birth control pills increase the risk 1.9 times, to 8.5 strokes per 100,000 women, according to a well-performed "meta-analysis" cited in the report. (A meta-analysis combines the results of multiple studies.) This is still a small risk; 24,000 women would have to take birth control pills to cause one additional stroke, according to the report.
But for women who take birth control pills and also smoke, have high blood pressure or have a history of migraine headaches, the stroke risk is significantly higher. Such women should be discouraged from using oral contraceptives, the report said.
Hormone replacement therapy with estrogen alone or combined with progesterone increases the risk of ischemic stroke by 40 percent; the higher the dose, the higher the risk, the report said.
Edited
Latest News
Role of ECM in brain memory
By newseditor
Posted 13 May
All individuals with two co…
By newseditor
Posted 12 May
Autoantibody patterns in pa…
By newseditor
Posted 12 May
How brains convert sounds t…
By newseditor
Posted 12 May
Mice with traits of Tourett…
By newseditor
Posted 11 May
Other Top Stories
Dendritic cell manipulation to achieve total tumor regression
Read more
Tumor adaptation in hostile environment!
Read more
How mutation in cell receptors affect cancer growth
Read more
Circular RNA as cancer biomarkers?
Read more
Predicting ovarian cancer survival using artificial intelligence
Read more
Protocols
Improved detection of DNA r…
By newseditor
Posted 09 May
Single-cell adhesive profil…
By newseditor
Posted 07 May
Parasympathetic neurons der…
By newseditor
Posted 07 May
Non-invasive measurements o…
By newseditor
Posted 05 May
A validation strategy to as…
By newseditor
Posted 04 May
Publications
Antigen-specific Fab profil…
By newseditor
Posted 12 May
Differential representation…
By newseditor
Posted 12 May
Glucose hypometabolism prom…
By newseditor
Posted 12 May
Organellophagy regulates ce…
By newseditor
Posted 12 May
Decoding mitochondria's rol…
By newseditor
Posted 11 May
Presentations
Hydrogels in Drug Delivery
By newseditor
Posted 12 Apr
Lipids
By newseditor
Posted 31 Dec
Cell biology of carbohydrat…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Nov
RNA interference (RNAi)
By newseditor
Posted 23 Oct
RNA structure and functions
By newseditor
Posted 19 Oct
Posters
A chemical biology/modular…
By newseditor
Posted 22 Aug
Single-molecule covalent ma…
By newseditor
Posted 04 Jul
ASCO-2020-HEALTH SERVICES R…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-HEAD AND NECK CANCER
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-GENITOURINARY CAN…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar