Natural estrogens may offer some protection to premenopausal
women threatened with severe brain damage during stroke,
according to a study led by researchers at Johns Hopkins and the
National Institutes of Health. Results of the study are
published in the January issue of the journal Stroke. They show
that in female rats, endogenous estrogens, those naturally
produced by menstruating females, support blood flow to the
brain during stroke and limit brain tissue damage. "What we have
is a possible explanation for the well-documented but poorly
understood clinical observation that premenopausal women are at
lower risk for stroke damage than men of the same age," says
Patricia D. Hurn, Ph.D., senior author of the study and an
associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine
at Hopkins. "It may also explain the steep rise in stroke
incidence in women after menopause." The researchers created
strokes in anesthetized male and female rats by blocking blood
flow for two hours through the middle cerebra