Why is cardiovascular health important in menopausal women?

Since endogenous estrogen shows some preventative benefits against cardiovascular risk factors in premenopausal women, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is often considered a male disease. However, CVD is the biggest cause of death in women, especially after menopause when endogenous estrogen withdrawal has detrimental effects on cardiovascular physiology and whole-body metabolism. Despite this, awareness of the risk of CVD is low in both women and in doctors; this needs rectifying. Women are under-represented in most clinical studies of CVD. Following diagnosis of CVD, the prognosis for women is not systematically similar to that for men. Furthermore, from the few comparisons conducted, gender differences in response to pharmacological interventions are evident, so that results obtained in wholly or largely male-based studies cannot be systematically extrapolated to women. Women with CVD should be afforded equivalent investigations and treatment to men, and it is vital that women be included in clinical trials in sufficient numbers to allow sub-group analyses and subsequent development of appropriate therapies. Since CVD is usually advanced by the time symptoms appear, prevention is the key; health management advice might include smoking cessation, adoption of a healthy diet, and incorporation of physical activity into the lifestyle.