Key Takeaways

Heart Disease in Women

“Women who look young and healthy are at a disadvantage,”Gina Lundberg, MD,clinical director of the Emory Women’s Heart Center and incoming chair of the Women in Cardiology Section of the American College of Cardiology, tells Verywell. “Physicians frequently pre-determine that they do not have a cardiovascular problem. Everyone needs a full and complete workup regardless of their outside appearance.”

The report highlights the need for change when it comes to women’s health and the biases associated with evaluating women’s symptoms when they seek medical care.

What This Means For You

Gender Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease—an umbrella term describing several diseases of the heart and blood vessels such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart attacks, and heart failure—frequently presents differently in women than men.

Symptoms

Research has shown that 64% of women who die suddenly of CVD did not have any prior symptoms.Women also may have atypical symptoms of a heart attackand may not have the classic symptom of chest pain.

Examples of symptoms women might have are:

Medication

A systematic review investigating gender differences and medication prescription rates among cardiovascular patients found that women are significantly less likely to be prescribed common CVD medications such asaspirin, statins, and ACE inhibitors (high blood pressure medication) compared to men.

Marla Mendelson, MDWomen were sent home with Tums while men would receive an EKG, stress test, and be sent to the cath lab.

Marla Mendelson, MD

Women were sent home with Tums while men would receive an EKG, stress test, and be sent to the cath lab.

The differences in prescribing practices for women can lead to the progression ofcardiovascular diseaseand even death.

Marla Mendelsom, MD, a cardiologist and medical director for the program for Women’s Cardiovascular Health at Northwestern Medicine, tells Verywell that studies have shown women experience discrimination when they seek medical care for chest pain. “Women were sent home with Tums while men would receive an EKG, stress test, and be sent to the cath lab," she says.

How to Create Change

As more research highlights the data validating real-world disparities in women’s healthcare, experts are calling for change. The report authors believe that implementing upstream changes in medical training and improving professionals' understanding of gender and racial disparities in healthcare settings will lead to positive change downstream for all women.

The study authors recommend three major changes to help decrease bias in women’s healthcare:

The Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine is ahead of the game when it comes to gender disparity curriculum. Mendelson teaches a class to first-year medical students on the sex and gender differences in cardiovascular disease, which she says the students really enjoy.

The under-representation of women in CVD clinical trials is also an area of healthcare that needs to be addressed.

“All studies should be analyzed for gender and racial/ethnic differences,” Lundberg says. “This means we have to enroll more women and more minorities in clinical trials if we are ever going to get that information. So many of the trials have been 80% white males and so that is not adequate for our diverse community of patients.”

The Go Red For Women Campaign

What does it mean to “Go Red?”

Lundberg, who is an active advocate of women’s heart health, says that “due to the increased awareness through the AHA Go Red for Women campaign and the development of women’s heart centers around the country, the care is much more appropriate today than it has ever been.”

Preventing Heart Disease

5 Sources

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Lau ES, Hayes SN, Volgman AS, Lindley K, Pepine CJ, Wood MJ.Does patient-physician gender concordance influence patient perceptions or outcomes?J Am Coll Cardiol. 2021;77(8):1135-1138. doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2020.12.031

Harvard Health Publishing.Gender differences in cardiovascular disease: women are less likely to be prescribed certain heart medications.

Mayo Clinic.Heart disease in women: understand symptoms and risk factors.

Zhao M, Woodward M, Vaartjes I, et al.Sex differences in cardiovascular medication prescription in primary care: a systematic review and meta‐analysis.J Am Heart Assoc. 2020;9(11):e014742. doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.119.014742

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