After three years of living with chest pain that worsened over time, Guylaine Pinet was finally able to have her diagnosis after consulting the Cardio F clinic, the first center specializing in women’s cardiovascular health in Quebec. According to the center’s co-founder, Dr. Jessica Forcillo, a shift is taking place in research into women’s heart health.
Cardio F has been in place for five years at the University of Montreal Hospital Center (CHUM). “But it was an effort since 2018. In our field — I am a cardiac surgeon — we were seeing inequities in terms of women’s cardiovascular health. […] Being a woman is an independent predictor of mortality, even in a very contemporary era,” maintains Dr. Forcillo. She recalls that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among women worldwide.
In Canada, “Everyone in Red” is a national day that takes place on February 13 to raise awareness of heart disease in women, which is often underdiagnosed.
At the clinic, we treat diseases specific to women and we are interested in risk factors specific to the woman’s life trajectory. By this we mean hormones, pregnancy, menopause, menarche, etc. Researchers will follow some of them who have agreed to participate in the research.
Dr. Forcillo explains that from a macroscopic perspective, when you look at the hearts of men and women, there is no difference. “It’s when a heart becomes damaged, when it develops disease, that’s when the differences arise. That is to say, we think that there are cardiometabolic, hormonal or inflammatory differences,” she explains.
Guylaine Pinet, a retired nurse, assures that Cardio F has given her life back. “I find that sometimes when I say that, it’s a big word […] but it’s a bit like that anyway because I got to the point where I still had pain,” she says.
The message that Ms. Pinet wants to convey is that women must be attentive to their symptoms and insist on being listened to. “It’s difficult to insist,” she said, “because we’re not the doctors.”
Better recognize symptoms specific to women
The trigger for Ms. Pinet was when she lost consciousness while she was resting. She had several symptoms afterward, such as jaw tension and chest tightness “like a vice.”
“The worse it got, the worse it got,” she remembers. Ms. Pinet says she was very well taken care of at the Montreal Heart Institute, but the tests she took did not give conclusive results, before she was referred to Cardio F where the diagnosis was made: vasospastic angina.
Ms. Pinet is now taking exceptional medications that suit her well, although they are imperfect. “I think I will never get back to the shape I had before, but at least I have been given back a quality of life that I had lost,” she rejoices.
Ms. Pinet’s case is not isolated. Dr. Forcillo says women and men’s symptoms may be the same for a heart attack, but the way they express them will be different. Women also have other symptoms that can be confusing, such as sweating, hot flashes, nausea, abdominal pain. “Often, it can pass for something else, like menopausal symptoms or indigestion,” says the surgeon.
Léa Berbach, a cardiology student, believes that women must learn to recognize the symptoms that are specific to them. “I think we should get to the point where women are better aware of the symptoms that are said to be more atypical, even if they are not atypical because they are their own symptoms. We should perhaps put this forward more and do more prevention with women so that they understand a little better.”
Women’s health research is improving
Research has historically been based on the “bikini approach,” or the reproductive system. “What we have seen over the last 40 years is that there has been an increase in the prevalence of cardiovascular disease. This may be due to the modernization of women over the years, which means that women are as affected by heart disease as men,” says Dr. Forcillo.
To better understand, Ms. Berbach is researching biomarkers, which are small molecules present in the blood. “We try to see what could predict the disease and help a little in the directions, the interventions that we would like to take,” explains the cardiology student.
With a specialized machine, researchers are trying to see if we can spot differences between the sexes. “Would there be more pronounced, more dominant markers in women, in men, and also within interventions?” she asks.
Ms. Berbach carried out an epidemiological study on a Quebec database and her results show that non-traditional factors (specific to the life trajectory of women) have an impact on the development of the disease. “But I think we need to push even more and do more analysis. Now, these results that we have with databases, we want them [amener] in our clinical projects with patients,” she says.
Dr. Forcillo is encouraged that research in women is improving. “There is clearly something happening because there are more and more groups interested in it. […] We are truly in the era of medicine that is personalized, individualized, and that is where we are heading,” she points out.
The surgeon emphasizes that in congresses there are now specific sessions on women’s heart health. “Just that is something. It’s happening across the world too. There is really an alarm signal that has been sounded in relation to this,” she concludes. However, it remains difficult to recruit women into clinical trials to do research.
date:2026-02-15 16:33:00
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