Strokes can be life threatening (and are usually at least life changing), and they strike both men and women – although according to Harvard Medical School, they affect women a bit more often than their male counterparts. The source says every year, 425,000-women suffer a stroke, which is 55,000-more per year than men.
However, there are some unique ways women are affected, and the risk factors for stroke may be a bit different as well. Let’s take a closer look at 12 stroke symptoms that typically only women will experience during (or after) a stroke…
1. Fainting
Reader’s Digest says fainting is 1-symptom that a woman having a stroke may have, although it may just be written off as something else less serious. However, the source explains women “tend to suffer strokes to the back of the brain more often than men,” which cuts off blood flow to key areas such as the brainstem.
The source continues by explaining the top of the brainstem is where the “consciousness center lies,” and starving it of blood can lead to fainting. The loss of consciousness may also be a fear response to having a stroke (from hyperventilation), it adds.
