SHE-HEALS - a global study to investigate how menopause shapes heart health
Awarded US $10 million through the International Research Challenge on Women’s Cardiovascular Health.
Learn more about SHE-HEALS
The study, Stopping atherosclerotic heart and vessel disease in women (SHE-HEALS), seeks to advance our understanding of how menopause shapes heart health. The funding will also support the team to launch the largest clinical trial of its kind to detect silent changes in arteries, and test whether earlier prevention can stop or even reverse their progression.
Led by BHF Professor Ziad Mallat at the University of Cambridge and Professor Martha Hickey at the University of Melbourne alongside a global team spanning thirteen institutions across seven countries, the study will use cutting edge techniques to discover the changes in arteries that start during perimenopause and drive increasing heart disease risk.
As part of this work, the team will also investigate how age at menopause affects heart disease risk, and whether taking HRT impacts this risk.
The researchers believe that current guidelines miss a vital window for earlier prevention in women. To address this, the team will establish the largest trial of its kind to detect silent atherosclerosis – the hidden hardening of the arteries and a key driver of heart disease – in women in perimenopause and early after menopause.
By spotting the early signs of disease before symptoms appear, the study will test whether early prevention, including targeting key risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, can stop or even reverse progression of atherosclerosis.
The SHE-HEALS team hope that the evidence from this study will help to shape global guidelines, paving the way for earlier, more effective prevention to protect the hearts of millions of women for longer.
Meet the Program Leads
Professor Ziad Mallat, University of Cambridge
Prof Ziad Mallat obtained his MD and degree in Cardiovascular Disease from Pierre & Marie Curie University in Paris, and his PhD from Paris Diderot University. He was appointed Director of Research at Inserm, France, in 2007, and is the BHF Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Cambridge, UK, since 2010. He has published over 330 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Mallat identified prominent roles for specific pathogenic and regulatory immune pathways in atherosclerosis and post-ischaemic remodelling. His work also revealed an atherosclerotic memory, whereby metabolic insults occurring early in life imprint the immune system and the vessel wall, predisposing to accelerated disease later in life. Mallat was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK, for having made "sustained and internationally recognised contributions to our understanding of cardiovascular immunology and atherosclerotic disease and translated these novel findings into clinical trials”.
Professor Martha Hickey, University of Melbourne
Prof Martha Hickey is a Gynaecologist and researcher. She trained in the UK and is now based in Melbourne where she leads Australia’s largest menopause service. She has published over 300 peer reviewed papers and is a senior editor for the Cochrane Collaboration. Her research has driven evidence-based care in menopause internationally including new treatments, models of care, evidence synthesis and clinical guidelines. She was the Clinical Expert for the 2024 UK NICE guidelines on menopause, led the first Lancet Clinical Series in Menopause (2024). Critically, her research has embedded the patient voice into menopause research. She led the James Lind Alliance Menopause Priority Setting Partnership across 51 countries in 2024 to direct the future research agenda. In her clinical practice she established the first multidisciplinary service for managing menopause after cancer, now replicated across 7 countries.
International Research Challenge on Women’s Cardiovascular Health
This award was funded through the GCRFF International Research Challenge (IRC) on Women’s Cardiovascular Health, which was launched in September 2024. This first of its kind $10 million USD network grant aims to fund the best science in the world and to support transformative research in women’s cardiovascular health, focusing on one or more areas that represent an unmet medical need of global relevance.
For all the details and guidelines, please visit the International Research Challenge on Women’s Cardiovascular Health Resource HUB.
Resource HUB
Get in touch
This GCRFF workstream is led by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. For more information on the Women’s Cardiovascular Health Research Initiative, please contact research@heartandstroke.ca