Question: What are Stroke Symptoms Like in Pregnancy?
Answer:
In general, the symptoms of stroke during or after pregnancy are similar to the symptoms of any other stroke. However, some specific stroke symptoms seen during or after pregnancy can be a little different from those seen in conventional strokes.
These include:
- Headache: A headache that won’t go away can be a sign that a stroke is about to happen. This is common in strokes caused by cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). Typically these headaches are more intense, or last much longer, than your regular headaches. You should go to the emergency room if you have such a headache along with double vision, weakness, numbness and classic stroke symptoms. Another kind of headache that you should always address by going to the emergency room is a thunderclap headache.
- Double Vision: Double vision is a rare presentation of stroke, but it can occur in the context of CVT or of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. In either case, the event is accompanied by headache.
- Dizziness or Vertigo: High blood pressure can profoundly affect the function of blood vessels in the back areas of the brain, some of which control our sense of balance. And women who suffer from high blood pressure during pregnancy can suffer strokes or stroke-like events, whose first symptoms are dizziness and/or vertigo. Such strokes can also cause nausea or vomiting.
- Blurry Vision: Because of the occipital lobe, which processes the sense of vision in our brain is located in the back areas of the brain, high blood pressure in a pregnant woman can also lead to blurry vision. This usually occurs as a result of reversible posterior leukoencephalopathy syndrome (RPLS).
- Seizures: Seizures can occur due to any stroke. In fact, seizures are the first sign of a small percentage of all strokes. However, seizures can be a common symptom in RPLS and in hemorrhagic strokes, both of which can happen when you have high blood pressure. Though rare, such strokes may take place either during or after pregnancy.
- Confusion and Lethargy: Severe bleeding or swelling inside the brain can lead to extreme sleepiness and/or confusion. This can happen due to RPLS, CVT, high blood pressure, and other forms of stroke in pregnancy.
