Journal du Dimanche Newspaper Article

These unprecedented times have brought us back to what is most essential in life: human beings, with our most precious and fragile resource, our health. COVID-19, this visible pandemic that’s terrifying many, has forced us to take time for reflection, introspection and interrogation. Let’s use this valuable time to learn about another panic, this time one that’s silent, invisible, insidious and growing, yet is too hidden to cause much fear: cardiovascular disease in women of all ages. No, cardiovascular disease isn’t just a disease that affects men older than 50! Every day, it kills 200 women in France and 25,000 around the world. It’s the leading cause of mortality among women. It kills six times more women than breast cancer and endangers women at progressively younger ages. Why is this happening? Because women are screened less often than men. Cardiovascular disease is not diagnosed often enough in women and if it is, it’s usually very late. Follow-up care, which is critical, is either too disorganized non-existent. Women simply aren’t given enough information about this illness. Their lives are complicated, requiring them to juggle professional and personal responsibilities and often leading them to feel guilty for taking care of their health. But cardiovascular risk factors are well-known:  stress, contraception, social vulnerability, obesity, tobacco use, hypertension and more. But what most people don’t know is that these risks are much more harmful for women than men. Without knowing it, women are also more vulnerable at key hormone stages: contraception, pregnancy and menopause.
With this misunderstood, yet urgent emergency situation in mind, the good news is that eight out of every 10 cardiovascular events are avoidable. Together, we have to act now! But what should we do exactly? Create a massive collective movement to raise awareness about this social and medical emergency. Promote positive prevention that brings together the entire health ecosystem and our amazing healthcare workers by capitalizing on the network’s exceptional collective intelligence.
Develop integrated care pathways that support women during critical hormone stages. Promote cross-functional research focused on the unique characteristics of cardiovascular disease in women. This is why we’ve decided to pool our medical, scientific, social and financial expertise to
- make this emergency a health priority and engage everyone in tackling it.
- to stop this cardiovascular emergency, which the WHO is calling the biggest worldwide pandemic of the next 20 years. - to change our stereotypes and move our culture from a curative healthcare model to a preventative, active, powerful model based on solidarity. - to engage our healthcare ecosystem and each of us, from every generation, in solving this red alert. This is why we created the Women’s Cardiovascular Healthcare Foundation (Fonds de Dotation Agir pour le Cœur des Femmes) with the goal of saving the lives of 10,000 women in the next five years.  We need to mobilize ourselves to become proactive participants in our own health and healing processes, rather than just passively enduring what comes our way. An article by Prof. Claire Mounier-Vehier, MD, and Thierry Drilhon, cofounders of the Women’s Cardiovascular Healthcare Foundation (Agir pour le Cœur des Femmes)
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* University professor, cardiologist, head of the vascular medicine and hypertension department at the University Hospital of Lille’s heart and lung institute (Institut Cœur Poumon), cofounder of the Women’s Cardiovascular Healthcare Foundation (Agir pour le Cœur des Femmes), author of Mon combat pour le cœur des femmes, agir avant qu’il ne soit trop tard [My Fight for Women’s Hearts: Acting Before It’s Too Late], published by Editions Marabout
** Corporate CEO and Chairman, president of the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce, cofounder of the Women’s Cardiovascular Healthcare Foundation (Agir pour le Cœur des Femmes)