women

robbie · Post by **robbie** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:55 pm

do women get stenosis 3x more thean men?

cheerleader · Post by **cheerleader** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:48 pm

Is the question in regards to why women are more likely to get MS? And will they be more likely to have CCSVI? If so...

Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI) which occurs in the legs, not the central nervous system, happens more frequently in women.

It's been thought that progesterone in women makes the smooth muscles more lax and creates CVI in women's legs...but the jugular and azygos vein don't have to fight gravity and don't need to push the blood back, so progesterone wouldn't be implicated...but this is only a theory.

Perhaps we'll understand more someday...
cheer

Jamie · Post by **Jamie** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:50 pm

I know what you are saying Robbie but don't forget these stenosis have ONLY been found in MS patients.

So the 3x selection has already been done.

If non- MS controls got it too then the 3x incidence would apply.

cheerleader · Post by **cheerleader** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:56 pm

also...the ratio is more like 2:1. (MS is same ratio as CVI)
cheer

patientx · Post by **patientx** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:51 pm

I guess it depends on which study you go by. According to this, the ratio has actually grown to 4:1.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/555620

zap · Post by **zap** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:40 am

Regarding CVI and gender:

I looked into this a while back and found conflicting info - a few older sources claimed more women than men get CVI, but more recent studies said:

"in contrast with the findings in most previous studies, mainly conducted in the 1960s and 1970s, chronic venous insufficiency and mild varicose veins were more common in men than women,"

"Prevalence of CVI correlated closely with age and sex, being 21.2% in men >50 years and 12.0% in women >50 years," and

"Many of the previously suggested associations found with CVI are in reality due to this population's greater age. Patients with CVI are older, male, obese, have a history of phlebitis, and have a history of serious leg injury. These results suggest that a prior deep vein thrombosis, either clinical or subclinical, may be a predisposing factor for CVI."