A latest study found that delaying pregnancy could raise the risk of women of suffering from heart attack or stroke in later life. Experts have found the mentioned risk mainly in women, who wait of turning 40 or older to conceive.

Lead author Adnan Qureshi from the Zeenat Qureshi Stroke Institute in Minnesota, said, “We already knew that older women were more likely than younger women to experience health problems during their pregnancy. Now, we know that the consequences of that later pregnancy stretch years into the future”.

The researchers analyzed the rates of two kinds of strokes. The first one was ischemic stroke, characterized by impeded blood flow because of a blocked artery, and the other was hemorrhagic stroke, in which weakened blood vessels rupture, resulting into blood spill or hemorrhage as implied by the term.

Nearly 2.4% of women, who conceive at a younger age, face risk of ischemic stroke, which is notably lower than the 3.8% of women in their 40s who also had the said risk. Hemorrhagic stroke risk augmented from 0.5% in young mothers to 1% in older mothers.

They also looked into the women's vulnerability of suffering heart attack. The risk of heart attack increased from 2.5% in young mothers to 3% in older mothers.

Older mothers also displayed adverse numbers in the case of risk of cardiovascular deaths. They had a 3.9% risk in comparison to younger women, having just 2.3% risk.

The authors reached on these numbers after studying data of more than 72,000 women, out of which, 3,306 had older-age pregnancy. They brought about a comparison between these data and that of women who conceived at a young age. The researchers obtained the final results after following the participants for 12 years.