Women and men are not equal when it comes to alcohol: it causes more serious, more rapid or specific damage in them, such as breast cancer, risks that are not sufficiently assessed and supported medically, according to the French National Authority for Health (HAS) on February 26.
Health professionals, general practitioners, nurses, physiotherapists, dieticians and social workers must be made aware of the specificities of women's exposure to alcohol, beyond the periods of pregnancy and maternity, states the HAS, which publishes information documents for them.
By addressing this topic regularly in consultation, as they do for smoking or physical activity, all " taking care to avoid any moral judgment", they will be able to accompany women" in understanding their uses and reducing their risks", while respecting " their choices, their priorities and their privacy" she said.
Because of " its hormonal impact on genital life, sexual health, intimacy, procreation, perinatality and its carcinogenic effect", alcohol consumption is " a global health topic " for women, from a young age and at all stages of their lives, underlines the HAS.
Gold " anxiety, depression, trauma, particularly sexual trauma, including childhood trauma", which promote alcohol consumption are more frequent among women, subject to " normative, aesthetic, marital, family injunctions, sources of stress, stigma and shame", which pushes them to hide this consumption.
Women are also victims of domestic violence and assault, particularly sexual, due to the habits of those around them. On a social level, considered " even more negatively "that men who have difficulty with their alcohol consumption, says the HAS, they suffer from"a medical underestimation » and »less access to available aid“.
Also alert on men's alcohol consumption
However, suitable services exist: dedicated consultations in addiction support and prevention care centers (CSAPA), the Alcohol Info Service platform, and support association discussion groups.
The Authority also warns about alcohol consumption by men when conceiving a child: " Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders can also result from their use - via the toxicity of alcohol transmitted by spermatozoa - and not only from that of women during pregnancy“.
“ Faced with these risks, the precautionary principle consists of stopping all alcohol consumption as soon as the desire for a child or stopping contraception occurs, for women until the end of breastfeeding, for men until pregnancy is diagnosed." she says.
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