UNR doctor Raquel Tizziani reflects on the right to live a dignified life, with equal opportunities and without violence in the wake of International Women's Health Day.

May 28 marks the international day of action for the health of women and sexual dissidence, with the aim of raising awareness about the care and protection of this population, their right to live a dignified life, with equal opportunities and without violence. The date was proposed by the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network in 1987.

Among the main causes of death in women are cardiovascular diseases, breast and cervical cancer, followed by colon cancer and lung carcinoma, according to the World Health Organization. Although cardiovascular risk factors are similar for For all, gender violence and emotional stress have recently been recognized as components linked to the female gender that impact their cardiovascular health.

“Female health problems are different from male ones, but historically science has dedicated much more to research with a male model,” says UNR doctor and clinical sexologist Raquel Tizziani, who addresses the concept of health in a comprehensive way from a perspective. biopsychosocial.

It explains that stress is a defensive mechanism, a physiological response that is activated in the face of a threat that may be real or perceived as such. In both cases, two mechanisms are activated: on the one hand, the sympathetic nervous system releases a hormone called adrenaline that physiologically prepares for fight or flight. And in the long term, another system is activated that releases cortisol, commonly called the stress hormone, which generates greater use of nutrients, oxygen, glucose, calcium, to sustain a situation of high demand.

This can happen for a limited time, for example, before a job interview or an exam, but the problem arises when cortisol release becomes chronic. This physical response to an external demand and context