{"id":22268,"date":"2025-05-22T06:47:59","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T04:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intimina.com\/blog\/?p=22268"},"modified":"2025-05-22T06:50:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T04:50:28","slug":"womens-heart-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intimina.com\/blog\/womens-heart-health\/","title":{"rendered":"What People Don’t Know About Female Heart Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to heart disease in women, the general public isn\u2019t much further along than we were a half a century ago. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, heart disease was considered a man\u2019s disease. <\/span><\/p>\n

Women were thought to be <\/span>naturally immune<\/span><\/a> to heart disease due to their hormonal makeup until menopause, and doctors believed that hormone replacement therapy could further protect them from heart disease. A woman\u2019s role in heart disease was to help take care of the men in their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the turn of the century, evidence began to indicate that heart disease also posed significant risks to women. Not only did doctors discover that heart disease impacted women as well as men, they also found that heart disease manifests differently in males and females. Since most of the <\/span>research<\/span><\/a> on heart disease up until the 1990s was done on male subjects, doctors had a difficult time recognizing heart attacks in women.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, things haven\u2019t changed enough since the days that heart disease was thought of a mostly male ailment. <\/span>70% of physician trainees<\/span><\/a> in the U.S. report that they aren\u2019t getting enough education in gender-based medical concepts during postgraduate medical training. In another survey, only <\/span>42%<\/span><\/a> of cardiologists and 22% of primary care doctors felt extremely well prepared to assess cardiovascular risks specifically in women.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Women More Likely To Die From Heart Disease<\/span><\/h2>\n

Though doctors are less likely to diagnose women with heart disease, women are actually more likely to die from heart disease than men due to misdiagnosis and undertreatment.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the past decade, <\/span>heart attack hospitalization rates<\/span><\/a> among women \u2013 especially young women under the age of 55 \u2013 have risen, while rates among men in the same age group have dropped. Moreover, women are <\/span>more likely to die<\/span><\/a> from heart attacks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the biggest reasons behind this increased mortality rate is a discrepancy in care. Doctors are less likely to treat women with high cholesterol with statins, a type of drug that helps lower the risk for strokes and heart attacks. Doctors are also less likely to prescribe women blood-thinning drugs to prevent or treat blood clots, which then puts them at a higher risk of atrial fibrillation. <\/span><\/p>\n

Modern guidelines<\/span><\/a> to treat heart disease are based on studies done in the 1990s using almost exclusively male subjects, and even with today\u2019s research, less than a third of study subjects are female.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Differences Between Male And Female Heart Disease<\/span><\/h2>\n

The lack of research on female heart disease is particularly dire because heart disease has pronounced gender differences. Below are some of the key differences in male and female heart disease:<\/span><\/p>\n

Different areas of cholesterol buildup<\/span><\/h3>\n

Heart attacks are caused by cholesterol plaque buildup inside the walls of arteries, damaging major blood vessels and restricting circulation. Men tend to develop cholesterol plaque buildup in the largest arteries that supply blood to the heart, whereas in women, plaque is more likely to accumulate in the smallest blood vessels of the heart, called the microvasculature. <\/span>Inflammation<\/span><\/a> also plays an important role in heart disease and may contribute to such gender differences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Different heart and blood vessel size<\/span><\/h3>\n

Differences in male and female anatomy and physiology extends to their cardiovascular systems. Women have smaller hearts and narrower blood vessels than men, which means heart disease can progress differently in women. However, <\/span>women are still being diagnosed<\/span><\/a> and treated with the same tests, procedures, and medications as men.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Different heart attack symptoms<\/span><\/h3>\n

Heart attacks may not always exhibit the same symptoms in men and women. The most common reported symptom of male heart attacks is <\/span>chest pain<\/span><\/a>. While chest pressure is the leading complaint in women, they are more likely than men to report:<\/span><\/p>\n