SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Women's Heart Health

Honourable senators, on Tuesday, February 13, Senator Burey and I wore red to celebrate Wear Red Canada. This annual event raises awareness about the importance of women’s heart health. In the words of the Heart and Stroke Foundation, when it comes to cardiovascular health, “Women are under-researched, under-diagnosed, under-treated and over-dying.”

Here are four startling facts: First, heart disease is the leading cause of premature death for Canadian women; second, women are more likely to die or suffer a second heart attack compared to men, yet two thirds of heart and stroke clinical research focuses on the male body; third, women are under-represented in leadership positions on cardiovascular clinical research trials; and fourth, cardiovascular disease kills more women than all forms of cancer combined, and yet only 44% of women recognize that cardiovascular disease is the greatest threat to their health.

Despite gaps in research, education and health care for women, progress is under way in Canada. Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg to learn more about their new Women’s Heart Health Initiative. Dr. Lorrie Kirshenbaum and Dr. Inna Rabinovich-Nikitin are two health care leaders who advocate for greater diversity in medical research to improve women’s heart health outcomes. Here in Ottawa, the University of Ottawa Health Institute and the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Centre focus on sex- and gender-based research for the prevention, detection and management of heart disease in women.

Colleagues, did you know that 53% of women’s heart attack symptoms go unrecognized? That is why more education on the signs, symptoms and risk factors of heart disease in women can truly save lives.

These statistics are not new. In 1999, 25 years ago, Health Canada released a document that acknowledged cardiovascular disease as a major cause of death and disability for Canadian women. These alarming statistics, and events like Wear Red Canada, help to raise awareness and promote inclusive heart health research. I invite you all to wear red on February 13 next year, because when we realize that one size does not fit all when it comes to heart health, we will shape a better and more equitable future for women across Canada.

Thank you, meegwetch.