Visualising the Extent of heart Disease in Indian Women (VEDNA), a survey, revealed that 65 per cent of doctors believe that lack of oestrogen hormone, which is due to changing lifestyle and other co-morbid conditions, is among the top five reasons responsible for younger women developing cardiovascular diseases (CVD).
The survey, covering almost 600 healthcare professionals of metro and non-metro cities from across the country exposed shocking facts about women’s heart health in India. The survey found that 54 per cent of cardiologists have observed a 16-20 per cent of overall growth rate in CVD among women in the last five years.
More surprisingly, a whopping 41 per cent of the doctors claimed an alarming 10-15 per cent growth rate in CVD among the age group of 20-40 years; the category of women, which was considered “protected” from heart ailments earlier.
Contrary to conventional belief that “pre-menstrual women are completely safe from heart ailments,” almost all doctors cited that even the menstruating population is falling prey to CVD.
“Quite contrary to conventional medical belief that due to the oestrogen hormone ‘women, especially menstruating ones, are safe from heart diseases,’ lately, there has been a colossal rise in the number of female cardiovascular patients. The trend may be attributed to changing lifestyle, which is bringing such drastic hormonal changes, that the heart-protecting effect of the oestrogen hormone is getting nullified,” said Dr Jagdish Parikh, cardiologist, Nanavati Hospital.
The survey results revealed that, due to changes in lifestyle, not only have the risk factors for the CVD, like stress, smoking, and drinking increased considerably, but co-morbid conditions like obesity, hypertension, and diabetes have also gone up.
Among other findings, 83 per cent of the doctors believed that Indian women are ignorant about heart diseases, while 76 per cent observed that women die of heart diseases due to late presentation to the hospital, and 66 per cent cited that death amongst women due to CVD was because of late diagnosis.
“It is frequently noticed that women often overlook symptoms and discomfort pertaining to heart diseases, and rarely consult an expert. Even if they do opt for expert’s consultation, more often than not, they discontinue the treatment as soon as they get symptomatic relief,” said Dr Parikh.