I had an ischemic stroke of undiscovered origin. Since that stroke I have been in the ER hospital four times with stroke-ish symptoms (I am very trained by my family and doctors to not ignore those!) Three of the four times I started menstruation with 4 hours of ending up in the ER. The fourth time they found my tumor. Last friday I was in the pharmacy to pick up something. I sat at the small chair with the automatic blood pressure check to take my bp. My blood pressure which is drugged with cozaar and never above 110/75... and frequently below 100.... was at 148/96. I pretty much flipped out. A couple hours later my period started. 4 days later my bp is the relatively normal 117/79 (I have alot of drama from my teenager going on right now.)
I have brought this up with my neurologist and regular internist, that is there some link between menstruation and stoke, because it seems to be significant in my case. Since there are "no studies" that can show them this can happen, they do not address it. They look like they are thinking about it, but then say they don't know. It makes me crazy that they are so cautious and have me drugged to the hilt (at least to me) because there are studies that prove this particular drug cocktail stops repeat strokes, but cannot move into causes that are not backed up with research. I imagine it is because insurance won't pay for it.
I have been told that women are harder to use in some medical studies--with the addition of hormones they have too many variables--so that is why there are more using men. When I worked on research projects, I remember controlling variables is key to a more significant study. That and getting lots and lots of people. As soon as the 65+ year old caucasian males start having strokes when they menstruate-- the bulk of the study data participants --I should have this figured out.
