World Menopause Day is held every year on the 18th October. The purpose of the day is to raise awareness of the menopause and the support options available for improving health and wellbeing. We encourage professionals and women to participate in this global awareness raising campaign by printing and sharing these materials, organising events to engage their communities, and sharing World Menopause Day social media posts.
The theme for World Menopause Day 2023 is Cardiovascular Disease
Breast cancer is often believed to be the number one cause of death and disability in women. In reality, it is cardiovascular disease. The number of cases of cardiovascular disease is high… and continuing to rise.
But by understanding more about the causes and impacts of cardiovascular disease, you can take steps to reduce your risk. Here’s what every woman needs to know…
Patient Information Leaflet: Cardiovascular Disease: What Women Need to Know
IMS has produced the Patient Information Leaflet to help women to better understand about cardiovascular disease.
What is Cardiovascular disease?
The term ‘cardiovascular disease’ actually covers a broad range of disorders, including coronary artery disease, which is a blockage or spasm of the arteries bringing blood to your heart. This prevents the heart from being properly nourished and you may experience symptoms like chest pain/heaviness, or shortness of breath. We call this angina. If left unchecked, it can cause a heart attack.
You can download and read the Patient Information Leaflet here 
Cardiovascular Disease: What Women Need to Know5.75 MB
White Paper: ‘Reproductive milestones across the lifespan and cardiovascular disease risk in women'
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death for women across the developed and developing world. Beyond traditional cardiovascular risk factors, a number of reproductive milestones have been recognized. The goal of this White Paper, issued by the International Menopause Society in conjunction with World Menopause Day 2023, is to highlight female reproductive milestones in terms of potential cardiovascular risk and to review recommendations for minimizing that risk.
The primary milestones discussed relate to menstrual cyclicity, adverse pregnancy outcomes, breast cancer treatments, and menopause. Each of these categories has a number of permutations that have been shown in observational studies to be associated with increased cardiovascular risks. In current clinical care, recognition of these reproductive milestones has been encouraged so patients can be informed and motivated to engage in primary prevention of cardiovascular disease early in their life course rather than retrospectively later in life.
Options for specifically targeted care with specialist teams are designed to enhance success with risk identification, screening and possible detection of CVD, and optimally, primary or secondary prevention of CVD. Promoting cardiovascular health of women has far reaching effects for themselves, their families, and their progeny. It’s time to make women’s cardiovascular health a priority
See a PDF of the full paper here
The paper is also available via Climacteric.
Survey for IMS 2016 Recommendations Update
The IMS is updating the 2016 Recommendations on Midlife Women’s Health. Two surveys have been developed by the IMS and Monash University to understand women’s needs about the topics to be included in the updated Recommendations and the accompanying tools/resources. One survey is for midlife women aged 45-65 and one is for health professionals.
We invite health professionals and women to complete the appropriate 10-minute online survey. Please follow this link for more information.
For Health Professionals
For Women
Content created October 2023
