Hormone therapy and contraceptive pills prevent brain aneurysm--study

Cerebral aneurysm is the weakness of the blood vessels that results in ballooning of these vessels.

Study suggests estrogen is helpful in prevention
The researchers asked 60 women who suffered from cerebral aneurysm if they had taken the hormone replacement therapy and also about the use of contraceptive pills by them. The findings were compared to the usage by 4682 other women.

The researchers found that women who had cerebral aneurysm were less likely to have taken the pill or the hormone replacement therapy. These women also had a lower average age of the menopause.

Cerebral aneurysm occurs more frequently in women and it had been previously suggested that the female hormones can be a reason behind this.

Cerebral aneurysm can be life threatening if the walls that have ballooned, burst resulting in what is called a hemorrhagic stroke.

Estrogen helped the structure of the walls of blood vessels by supporting the division of endothelial cells of these walls of the blood vessels.

Women are found to be more prone to developing cerebral aneurysms after 40 years of age and the aneurysms have the most chances of rapture between the ages 50 and 59.

Earlier studies have shown that while women who have periods at an early age or do not have children are more prone, while the use of oral contraceptive pills offered protection against the haemorrhagic stroke in older age.

The present treatment options are very limited and include blood pressure control and quitting smoking. The alternative available is the surgical intervention like the placement of a clip or the inserting a coil in an effort to control the aneurysm.

The authors of the study said that these results not only shed additional light on the way cerebral aneurysms develops and progresses, but could also lead to the development of new therapies for the patients, either for those harbouring the unruptured cerebral aneurysms or for those who are more prone to develop one, these future therapies can also address the fundamental vascular tendency towards the aneurysms.

The research is published in the ‘Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery.'