Almost 54,000 women die each year from diseases associated with the heart and circulatory system (hypertension, ischemia or heart failure), which constitutes the main cause of deaths well above respiratory pathologies and tumorsa reality that is not sufficiently widespread, which is why the Argentine Society of Cardiology (SAC) promotes a bill to declare October 9 National Day of Awareness of Cardiovascular Disease in Women.
“We believe that it is necessary to establish a day of awareness of cardiovascular disease in women because there is an underestimation of risk in society, in the women themselves and even in the health professionals”, indicated to Télam the cardiologist Verónica Crosa, Director of the Heart and Women Area ‘Dra. Liliana Grinfeld’ of the SAC.
To illustrate, the specialist mentioned the case of the 46-year-old woman who died days ago on a flight from Barcelona to Ezeiza: «Most of the news talks about the woman starting with a panic attack and later decompensating; and here it is important to clarify that Cardiovascular disease in women can have different manifestations than in men and one of these symptoms can be mistaken for a panic attack,” he said.
«However -he continued- there is the classic symptom that we are taught to doctors in the Faculty and to all health professionals has to do with those that the man develops; So, since women express cardiovascular symptoms in a different way, they are often underestimated and it is believed that it is actually nerves, that he has a panic attack, that his stomach hurts because he ate something that fell heavyetc».
The lack of perception of the women themselves about the risks of cardiovascular disease can be observed in the surveys carried out by their area in the SAC: «When we ask women what they consider to be the main cause of death, more than 60% of those surveyed answered ‘tumors’ (breast, ovarian, uterine cancer) when in reality one in eight women dies from this cause while one in three dies from cardiovascular disease,” the specialist described.
According to the latest Vital Data Bulletin of the Ministry of Health, in 2021, 53,933 women died in Argentina from diseases related to the circulatory system (of them 15,289 due to heart failure, 10,576 due to ischemic heart diseases, etc.); while 5,820 died from breast cancer, 2,995 from the uterus and 1,195 from the ovaries.
In this context that has been going on for decades, in 2004 the American Heart Society (AHA) through the movement ‘Women in Red’ (Go Red For Women) drew attention to this reality, urging cardiology societies around the world to take action.
Faced with this call, in Argentina the SAC convened a group of cardiologists led by Dr. Liliana Grinfeld and on October 9, 2005, the Heart and Women Area was founded within the Scientific Society, which since then has actively worked in the promotion, research and training of professionals in the prevention and control of cardiovascular disease in women.
“That is why we chose this date to propose National Day,” Crosa explained.
Due to biological and sociocultural reasons, women and trans women present specific risk factors that are added to the common ones with men such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, etc.
“These common risk factors can have a different impact. For example, diabetic women have a 40% higher risk than diabetic men of suffering a myocardial infarction; he also has a higher risk of having heart failure if he is hypertensive than the man », he described.
Regarding the sedentary lifestyle, he maintained that “women do less physical activity than men; on the one hand, because she culturally Since we were little, we are instructed to do activities and games that do not require much movement.and on the other because those who want to do something physical often cannot find a place in their schedules to carry it out».
“With respect to Smoking is the only risk indicator that has been declining in the country, in large part, thanks to the enactment of Law 26,687 in 2011, which actually established an anti-smoking policy; That is why we want this law to be sanctioned to see if we achieve an impact, “he emphasized.
Crosa explained that “there are biological risk factors that are exclusive to women, such as having had an early menopause (before 45 or 40 years); pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia, hypertensive disorders, gestational diabetes, preterm labor or recurrent miscarriages; having chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatic diseases that have a clear prevalence in women (for example, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and other collagen diseases) or having had breast cancer”.
«But there are other risk factors that are associated with the female gender, which impact both cis and trans women, and it has to do with the chronic stress generated by gender violence or sexual abuse because those who have been subjected to these situations have greater adrenergic discharge and a chronic inflammatory factor, increased drug use, obesity, have less adherence to healthy guidelines and smoke more, so these conditions increase the risk of having a cardiovascular event,” he described.
In this group of risk factors he also mentioned “inequity in employment and access to education; maternity hospitals in precarious conditions, without support, subjected to a situation of care or coexistence with violent people” and, finally, the socio-environmental factors “that affect women more, such as those who cook with firewood.”
Although the official presentation of the bill to declare October 9 National Women’s Cardiovascular Disease Awareness Day passed May 4the proposed regulation was resubmitted today in the Senate to report the details of the regulation.
During the meeting, the specialists agreed that the main objective of the project is to raise awareness among women regarding their cardiovascular risk, to motivate preventive actions.
Among its recitals, the project proposes to establish that the ‘National Executive Branch, through the competent bodies, promote in the month prior to that date by written, digital, radio and television media, the holding events and an awareness campaign about the problem and its incidence in women that emphasizes the importance of prevention and periodic control’. Fountain telam.
This content was originally published on RED/ACCIÓN and is republished as part of the “Human Journalism” program, an alliance for quality journalism between RÍO NEGRO and RED/ACCIÓN.