Agir pour le Cœur des Femmes compiles and analyzes the medical records resulting from the screenings carried out on the Bus du Cœur des Femmes. The Observatory lists all the risk factors identified during the screening process.
French women at high cardiovascular risk.
89% of French women have at least two cardiovascular risk factors. Nearly half of them (46%) combine two gyneco-obstetrical risk factors (contraception contraindicated, gynecological follow-up non-existent, late pregnancies...) in addition to cardiovascular risk factors, making them high-risk women.
Menopause: medical follow-up that falls apart during a high-risk period of life.
79% of women have no cardiovascular follow-up. 44% have up-to-date gynaecological follow-up. After the age of 69, women's gynecological health check-ups plummet, even though they should at least continue to have mammograms every two years. Menopausal women are less well monitored than non-menopausal women in terms of gynecological care, and very inadequately monitored in terms of cardiovascular care.
Cardiovascular disease ignores social markers... but is linked to lifestyles
67% of women have psycho-social risk factors, such as chronic stress, which accelerate the onset of cardiovascular disease. Women are accumulating these risk factors more than ever: the increase in mental workload and the growing adoption of risky behaviors (sedentary lifestyle, poor diet, smoking, alcohol, contraindicated contraception...) are increasingly reducing the gender gap in terms of cardiovascular mortality, unfortunately not in the right direction.
All women are affected by cardiovascular disease, whatever their socio-professional category or level of precariousness. They all present the same proportions of risk factors.
The medical data of over 8,000 women screened during the 37 stages of the Heart Bus in 2021, 2022 and 2023 have been anonymized and analyzed by Patrick Devos, biostatistician, at the Lille University Hospital's Research and Innovation Department, and Pr Claire Mounier-Véhier, co-founder of Agir pour le Cœur des Femmes.
The World Health Organization has issued an alert on cardiovascular disease for the next 20 years.1 Despite what many people still think, this disease isn’t just a concern for men. Every day, it kills more than 200 women in France2 and 25,000 around the world.2 Many times, delays in diagnosis and [...]
Stress significantly increases the risk of heart attack or stroke. Chronic stress promotes atherosclerotic plaque deposits in the arteries and heart rhythm disorders. Acutely, it can cause tako-tsubo or broken heart syndrome... Women's hearts are even more sensitive to stress. A healthy [...]
At menopause, many women suffer from disorders associated with the drop in estrogen, which can severely affect their quality of life. Some are well-known, such as hot flushes, mood swings, irritability, sleep disorders or fatigue. Others are less well known, and sometimes just as difficult to cope [...]