It is essential to monitor your cardiovascular health throughout your life, but particularly as you age. Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO) recalls that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. It is therefore important to identify people at risk so that they receive appropriate treatments and can prevent the onset of these diseases. But when to plan a cardiovascular consultation with your doctor and how to properly prepare it? Current wife interviewed Professor Claire Mounier-Vehier, cardiologist and co-founder of Agir pour le Coeur des Femmes, in order to answer these questions.
Cardiovascular health: when should you consult?
The cardiovascular health of women must be monitored throughout life, it is therefore essential to know when to consult your GP or gynecologist (who is often the woman’s only referring doctor), in order to assess her risk factors. cardiovascular. Professor Claire Mounier-Vehier details six key moments when you should not neglect the consultation to identify cardiovascular risk factors :
- at the time of prescribing the first contraception: long consultation of information on methods of contraception and sexually transmitted diseases;
- at the time of contraceptive renewal: contraceptive follow-up consultation;
- before pregnancy: pre-conception consultation;
- after childbirth: postpartum consultation;
- at the start of menopause: cardiovascular screening consultation;
- for menopause monitoring: cardiovascular monitoring consultation, the rhythm of which is set by the cardiologist.
“We generally do the biological assessment again when we enter menopause. On this occasion, we make a checklist: we look to see if there are any cardiovascular warning symptoms to report and any treatments in progress (we bring back all our prescriptions), we do or repeat the lipid/fasting blood sugar test, a blood ionogram, a creatinine dosage, we think about taking our ECGwe take a self-measurement of blood pressure over 3 days if we have a blood pressure monitor at home… When the woman has more than 3 risk factors, we will request a cardiovascular consultation for a personalized assessment”, explains the cardiologist.
In order to properly identify women’s cardiovascular risk factors during their appointment with their attending physician, Professor Claire Mounier-Vehier insists on the importance of preparing your consultation well in advance. She summarizes the different elements to take into account before your medical appointment:“When a woman goes to her gynecologist or her GP, she will prepare well for the consultation by listing all her medical, cardiovascular, metabolic, gyneco-obstetric history, all her current treatments, her blood pressure, her blood sugar levels, its lipid profileits abdominal perimeter, but also its stress levels”. She adds that we must not forget to list all the small lifestyle habits that can be harmful to cardiovascular health, such as smoking, snacking, alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyle or even lack of sleep.
How to prepare for your cardiovascular consultation in 10 steps?
In order to see things more clearly and not forget anything, the experts to Act for the Hearts of Women created a simple infographic that reminds the 10 key steps to properly prepare your cardiovascular consultation to identify cardiovascular risk. Here are the 10 pieces of information to send to your treating physician during your cardiovascular consultation, so that he or she can set up an effective personalized cardiovascular assessment:
- Personal history (cardiovascular, gynecological, obstetrical, medical and surgical)
- Family history
- Current treatments
- Allergies (to medications, iodine or other)
- Cardiovascular risk factors, phlebitis or pulmonary embolism
- Cardiovascular warning signs
- The medical file, with electrocardiograms
- Self-measurement blood pressure readings, at home over 3 days, with 3 consecutive measurements in the morning and evening
- Weight and abdominal circumference
- Biological assessment less than 6 months old (total cholesterol, LDL and HDL, CT, triglycerides, fasting blood sugar, blood ionogram, creatinine, complete liver assessment, and thyroid assessment if necessary)
Cardiovascular health: how to monitor it throughout your life?
While you must prepare well for your regular cardiovascular check-ups with your attending physician, Professor Claire Mounier-Vehier also insists on the importance of monitoring your cardiovascular health at your own level and on a daily basis. In particular, it recommends measure regularly his blood pressure in self-measurement: “I really invite, whether you are a man or a woman, to buy a self-measurement device for your arm and to take a reading three days consecutively, once a year before the age of 40 and then every 6 months from 40 years when there is no hypertensive heredity and every 3 to 4 months if there is a family history of hypertension”. She also recommends keep an eye on the evolution of your weight. “Weigh yourself and measure your abdominal circumference once a year, before seeing your doctor or gynecologist.”, she explains. All these measures will allow more regular monitoring and alert a doctor to the need to do a cardiovascular assessment more advanced or not. “When you go to see your gynecologist, you measure your weight, your height, and your abdominal circumference, you take a self-measurement of your blood pressure if possible, then you see with her if you don’t need to do a fasting metabolic blood sugar test again.”, summarizes the cardiologist.
Thanks to Professor Claire Mounier-Vehier, cardiologist and vascular doctor, co-founder of Agir pour le Coeur des Femmes.
Additional sources:
- Infographic: Prepare your consultation in 10 steps – Act for the Heart of Women
- Cardiovascular diseases – World Health Organization