Extreme weather events (heat waves, floods, droughts, fires, etc.) have a considerable influence on our living environment and our health.
Air and water pollution, food insecurity, increase in vector-borne infectious diseases (dengue fever, Zika, malaria, etc.), our general environment is deteriorating and some populations are more vulnerable than others to this upheaval.
Women are the first to suffer from climate change
Women – but also children and the elderly – are in fact on the front line when faced with the consequences of disorder climate.
While the latest IPCC report predicts global warming of more than 1.5 degrees by 2030, global warming climate appears more and more ” gender “, affecting women in a way “disproportionate” because of their sexual and reproductive role, as Angela Baschieri, author of a report by the United Nations Population Fund, points out.
Consequences for women’s health
However, it is difficult to assess this impact with certainty. First of all, because studies on this subject are still rare. Secondly, because it is a “multifactorial problem”, says Dr. Véronique Allali-Zerah, endocrinologist, diabetologist, nutritionist, specializing in medical gynecology. « The disorder climate must be placed in a global context of environmental change: rising temperatures influence exposure to pollutants (including endocrine disruptors) and nutritional factors. It is all of these data that have consequences for women’s health.”
Precocious puberty, infertility, increased risks during pregnancy (prematurity, low birth weight, fetal death in utero, preeclampsia, etc.) linked to these changes are now recognised problems (notably by the IPCC, in its report), and we are now wondering about the longer-term consequences.
At their level, here is what our specialists have already been able to observe.
7 ILLS THAT COULD AFFECT US EVEN MORE IN THE FUTURE
– Hot flashes: “They are both exacerbated and more frequent with rising temperatures. Pregnant or perimenopausal women are more exposed to them,” explains Dr. Véronique Allali-Zerah.
– Venous insufficiency: “Basically, women have a less good venous return than men. With the heat, the phenomenon of heavy and swollen legs, as well as the risk of phlebitis, increases, because there is less drainage at the level of the lower limbs”, notes Dr. Odile Bagot, gynecologist.
– Problems related to excessive sweating: Excessive sweating, skin mycoses (inframammary folds, inguinal folds) or vaginal mycoses are also more common when it is hot.
– Brown spots: Too much exposure to the sun and hormones (estrogen and progesterone) cause an overproduction of melanin, which results in the appearance of brown spots, or lentigines, on the skin. “A phenomenon that is more frequent when you are pregnant, when you are taking hormonal contraception or when you are taking hormone replacement therapy during menopause,” explains Dr. Odile Bagot.
– Fatigue: During hot weather, our body has to work harder to maintain its body temperature at 37°C. Exhaustion is therefore often the order of the day, sometimes accentuated by headaches, cramps and feelings of weakness.
– Urinary tract infections: “Heat stroke can also cause dehydration, a condition that favors the proliferation of bacteria, and therefore the appearance of urinary tract infections,” continues the gynecologist.
– Disorders of the female cycle and sleep: If the change climate leads to warmer and brighter summers, but also to darker winters. Menstrual cycle disorders, sleep disorders, anxiety and depression linked to lack of light are thus on the rise.
This phenomenon, regularly studied in Nordic countries, was also noted by Dr. Bagot: “Over the years, I have noticed that consultations for cycle and ovulation disorders are more numerous in winter. The cycle is clearly influenced by light.”
– Stress: Less visible symptoms, affecting our cognitive abilities, can finally be felt. Difficulty concentrating, aggressiveness, hypervigilance, increased stress, anxiety: heat would also impact our mental health. Not to mention the eco-anxiety that it induces and which, it too, is felt more by women.
Our experts:
By Odile Bagot, gynecologist, obstetrician and author of My Gynecology Survival Guide (Marabout ed.)
Dr. Véronique Allali-Zerah, endocrinologist, diabetologist, nutritionist, specializing in medical gynecology.
Source: www.topsante.com
