Katharina Buczek
A recent study published in the British Medical Journal has found that infertility and pregnancy loss put women at an increased risk of stroke.
In the United States, approximately ten percent of women are infertile, and about one million women each year suffer a miscarriage or stillbirth.
In this study, the researchers analyzed data from over twenty-seven studies using the InterLACE consortium data pool on reproductive health and chronic disease.
Data from seven nations– including the U.S., Australia, Japan, China, Sweden, the U.K., and the Netherlands– were included in the analysis.
Additionally, questionnaires were used to gain information about miscarriages, stillbirths, infertility, and non-fatal strokes. For fatal strokes, hospital data were used.
In total, over six hundred thousand women were included in the analysis. Their ages ranged from thirty-two to seventy-three years old.
And out of these women, over two hundred and seventy-five thousand had suffered either non-fatal or fatal strokes.
Additionally, about fifty-five thousand women only experienced a non-fatal stroke, while two hundred and eighty-eight thousand women only experienced a fatal stroke.
The researchers found that miscarriages, stillbirths, and infertility were all associated with a higher risk of stroke. Moreover, this risk increased in the event of recurrent miscarriages and stillbirths.
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