Hyperlipidemia, hypertension and atherosclerosis in women. Reality and perspectives.

The prevalence of ischemic cardiopathy is different from country to country, race to race, although there is a constant greater prevalence among males. After a certain age there is a modification of the ratio between males and females; but this ratio, before and after menopause, is varying in time and to a certain extent is due to the intervention of new risk factors or the greater influence of the traditional factors which are not age related. in this review are analyzed, with greater emphasis on the female sex, the major risk factors for the ischemic cardiopathy, their dependence on hormonal status before and after menopause, and the different life styles and behaviours that are probably influenced by ethnologic factors, in the so called advanced societies.