MILAN (ITALPRESS) – Gender medicine is an emerging approach that takes into account biological and social differences between men and women in the way diseases manifest, progress and respond to treatment. This discipline aims to develop more personalized and appropriate clinical practices, taking into account the specificities of males and females. Gender medicine is particularly important in fields such as cardiology, where differences between men and women are marked, and can greatly influence diagnosis and treatment. Cardiovascular disease is often considered a predominantly male problem, but in fact it is the leading cause of death for women in many countries, including Italy. These are some of the issues discussed by Daniela Trabattoni, cardiology specialist and head of the “Monzino Human Heart Center” at the Monzino Cardiology Center in Milan, interviewed by Marco Klinger, for Medicina Top, a TV format of the Italpress news agency. “In the collective imagination, it has long been believed that cardiovascular disease was predominantly the preserve of men, in reality it is the leading cause of death for women,” he began. “124,000 women each year are affected by heart disease in Italy, that is, one every 5 minutes, but it is often poorly understood because of the subtle symptomatological features that are not equivalent to those that occur when it happens in men. It is not always stress or anxiety, which is why it is important to know how to listen to one’s body. “Due to a lack of information and poor medical culture, it has long been thought that the symptomatology in women is more attributable instead to anxiety or stress, and not to heart disease,” Trabattoni explained. “This has led to later access to treatment with unfavorable outcomes. Several symptoms should set off alarm bells. The number of women who are willing to do prevention, to understand based on their family predisposition their risk factor, is growing,” he added. “It’s important for every woman to know her cardiovascular risk and thus be able to prevent certain situations that occur post-menopause.” Not only are the symptoms different between men and women, but also the very characteristics of heart disease change according to sex: “In women very often we also have infarctions in normal coronary arteries, related to phenomena such as spasms or a particular response of the sympathetic system triggered by emotional/physical stress, all factors that can lead to a manifestation superimposed on that of a heart attack. In men it’s rarer, in women it’s more typical,” the doctor recounted. “Normal coronary artery infarction is reversible because in the face of an altered electrocardiogram the muscle damage regresses completely in 4-6 weeks, but diagnosis, approach to treatment and specific therapies, as well as prevention are needed. The suggestion, therefore, lies precisely in the word prevention: “I suggest that women know their cardiovascular risk, to do prevention before menopause even arrives, to correct their lifestyle,” Trabattoni stressed. “Other specific factors are related to pregnancy pathologies, inflammatory pathologies, and gynecological pathologies of women: there is a greater predisposition if one of these manifestations is present. Finally, a reflection on the different response between men and women to different drugs: “A different response to drugs, mediated by a mechanism of kinetics and metabolism, has been documented between men and women,” he admitted. “This is because very often the dosages of drugs prescribed to women are derived from experiences and clinical trials conducted on male elements. Clinical trials detect an enrollment of women that does not exceed 30-40%, this causes many drugs to be calibrated to male-type muscle mass,” Trabattoni concluded. “Aspirin, for example, encounters intoxication more often in women in the case of drug abuse, this is because it does not have direct efficacy as in men and is deposited in the body.
– photo taken from Top Medicine video -(ITALPRESS).
