The initiative "EsMujer. Women's Health Strategy in Spain" has prepared a report in which it demands the implementation of a specific women's health strategy in the country. The text is presented as a call to action for the health administration to design a roadmap that allows for a comprehensive approach to women's health needs throughout all stages of their lives.
"EsMujer. Women's Health Strategy in Spain" is promoted by the pharmaceutical companies Astellas Pharma, Organon, and Theramex, and brings together clinical specialists, scientific societies, and patient associations with the aim of promoting its own strategy within the National Health System (SNS).
The document was presented in the Ernest Lluch Hall of the Congress of Deputies and has the endorsement of the Spanish Association for the Study of Menopause (AEEM); the Spanish Foundation for the Study of Menopause (FEEM); the Spanish Association of Urology (AEU); Women in Pharma; the Health Observatory; the Spanish Society of Primary Care Physicians (SEMERGEN); and the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN), in addition to the collaboration of the Spanish Patient Forum (FEP).
As detailed by the initiative, the report adopts a longitudinal view of women's health and is structured around three main blocks: women's health in the face of prevalent diseases throughout life, health in reproductive age, and health during climacteric. This perspective, they emphasize, allows for the identification of the specific needs of each life phase of women and the inclusion of proposals tailored to each stage.
Along these lines, Dr. Esther de la Viuda, coordinator of the document, has highlighted the relationship between cardiovascular disease and breast cancer as the main causes of mortality in women and has insisted on the importance of the future Women's Health Strategy incorporating priority measures for prevention, early diagnosis, and control of cardiovascular risk factors.
On the other hand, Dr. Francisco Carmona, also a coordinator, has pointed out that reproductive-age health suffers from a silent gap with a high social impact. In his presentation, he focused on three key health problems in this stage: uterine fibroids, endometriosis, and adenomyosis, pathologies that are benign from an oncological point of view, but with significant vital, functional, and economic repercussions.
Regarding women's health during climacteric, Dr. Pluvio Coronado, coordinator of the corresponding section, explained that, according to studies conducted on the Spanish population, 50 percent of peri- and postmenopausal women see their quality of life diminished by 39 percent or more by climacteric symptoms. He added that vasomotor symptoms (VMS), such as hot flashes and night sweats, are the most frequent and can affect up to 80 percent of women in the transition to menopause.
In the call to action section, the three women's health specialists propose a series of measures they consider essential for a future Women's Health Strategy in the SNS. Among them, promoting sex-unbiased biomedical research, reinforcing women's health content in university programs and in the continuing education of healthcare professionals, enhancing the prevention and early diagnosis of cardiometabolic risk factors in women, and integrating mental health.
Likewise, the document advocates for standardizing healthcare for severe menstrual pain, fibroids, and abnormal uterine bleeding, incorporating a specific approach to benign gynecological pathology, including menstrual health in workplace policies, creating multidisciplinary menopause units in both hospitals and primary care, and ensuring equitable access to all therapeutic options, pharmacological and non-pharmacological, for the management of menopause.