Are women with heart disease not getting the same care as men?
“Our study suggests that women with cardiovascular disease aren’t getting the same attention and treatment as men with cardiovascular disease, and this can have real-world effects on patient outcomes,” says Victor Okunrintemi, M.D., M.P.H., a former graduate student at Johns Hopkins and now an internal medicine resident at East Carolina University.
What are the differences between men and women's cardiovascular systems?
Men and women also have differences in their cardiovascular systems. Compared to men, women have smaller hearts and narrower blood vessels.
How does a heart attack affect women differently to men?
A heart attack is harder on a woman than a man. Women don’t tend to do as well as men after a heart attack. They often require a longer hospital stay and are more likely to die before leaving the hospital. This may be due to the fact that women who suffer a heart attack have more untreated risk factors, such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
What are the challenges in diagnosing women with heart disease?
A significant challenge for diagnosing women with heart disease is the lack of recognition of symptoms that might be related to heart disease, or that don't fit into classic definitions.
How does heart disease differ between men and women?
Men typically develop this plaque buildup in the largest arteries that supply blood to the heart. Women are more likely to develop this buildup in the heart's smallest blood vessels, known as the microvasculature. Furthermore, heart disease in both sexes is only partly related to the accumulation of cholesterol.
How does heart disease affect women differently?
A woman's symptoms are often different from a man's, and she's much more likely than a man to die within a year of having a heart attack....Top heart attack symptoms in womenOne month before a heart attackDuring a heart attackShortness of breath (42%)Unusual fatigue (43%)7 more rows
Does heart disease affect women or men more?
Although heart disease is sometimes thought of as a man's disease, almost as many women as men die each year of heart disease in the United States. This map shows death rates from heart disease in women in the United States. The darker red indicates a higher death rate.
Why do females have less coronary heart disease than males?
For example, a woman's heart is usually smaller, as are some of its interior chambers. The walls that divide some of these chambers are thinner. And while a woman's heart pumps faster than a man's, it ejects about 10% less blood with each squeeze.
What are the risk factors for women's health?
Some risk factors that relate specifically to women or that can affect women disproportionately include: Relatively high testosterone levels prior to menopause. Increasing hypertension during menopause. Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis – more common in women than in men. Stress and depression – also more common among women.
How to lower cardiovascular risk?
The first step to lowering cardiovascular risk is to raise your awareness of the risk factors and symptoms that are particular to women. The next step is to take actions and practice daily behaviors that lower the risk factors you can control . Avoid smoking.
How to control risk factors?
Lower the Risk Factors You Can Control 1 Avoid smoking. 2 Stick to a healthy, low-saturated-fat diet that is high in fiber and low in fatty, processed foods. 3 Several times a week, follow a supervised exercise regimen that is both challenging and motivating:#N#Benefits of regular exercise include lower blood pressure, lower risk of diabetes, healthier body weight, and stress reduction.#N#Exercise at least 3 times per week for at least 30 minutes. Even better, build up to 4-6 times per week for 45 minutes or more. 4 Consult with your physician about cardiovascular screening based on your family history and risk factors. 5 Keep track of your cholesterol.
What are the risk factors for heart disease?
Women and men share many heart disease risk factors, but recent studies are showing what previous male-focused studies have not shown: Women also have their own unique heart disease risk factors. Traditional risk factors common to both women and men: Obesity. Smoking.
How to reduce blood pressure?
Avoid smoking. Stick to a healthy, low-saturated-fat diet that is high in fiber and low in fatty, processed foods. Benefits of regular exercise include lower blood pressure, lower risk of diabetes, healthier body weight, and stress reduction. Exercise at least 3 times per week for at least 30 minutes .
Can a woman have a heart attack?
Women can develop symptoms that are subtler and harder to detect as a heart attack, especially if the physician is only looking for the "usual" heart attack symptoms. "Women are much more likely to have atypical heart attack symptoms," says Dr. Lili Barouch, director of the Johns Hopkins Columbia Heart Failure Clinic.
Is rheumatoid arthritis more common in women than men?
Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis – more common in women than in men. Stress and depression – also more common among women. Low risk factor awareness – Lack of recognition of many of the above conditions as risk factors for heart disease is a risk factor in itself.
Why do women not get the proper medications after a heart attack?
Women don’t always get the proper medications after a heart attack. After a heart attack, women are at greater risk of developing a blood clot that can cause another heart attack.
What age do women have a heart attack?
This is why the average age for a heart attack in women is 70, but 66 in men. 2 . The symptoms of heart attack can be different in women. Chest pain (also described as a crushing weight on the chest) is the most common symptom ...
Why is CAD more difficult to diagnose?
After a heart attack, women don’t always do as well as men. Sometimes, it’s because women don’t always receive the best treatment for their disease.
How long does it take for a woman to feel fatigued before a heart attack?
Unlike the dramatic, chest-clutching pain seen in the movies, women often experience subtler symptoms for three or four weeks before a heart attack. Red flags include: New or dramatic fatigue. You aren’t exerting yourself, but you feel deeply fatigued, but can't sleep, or have a “heavy” chest.
What happens to the heart when a woman is stressed?
When a woman is stressed, her pulse rate rises and her heart ejects more blood.
Why do men have heart failure?
Heart failure in men is usually caused by damage from a heart attack that prevents the muscle from contracting as forcefully as it should. On the other hand, women are more likely to develop heart failure when high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease, or other condition prevents their heart muscle from relaxing properly between beats. Women with this type of heart failure generally live longer than men with heart failure. But, they need frequent hospitalizations for shortness of breath, have limited physical ability, and are more likely to need nursing home care. 7
What is the leading cause of heart attack?
Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) CAD, the leading cause of heart attack, is the same process in men and women. Extra fats circulating in the blood are deposited in the walls of the heart’s arteries, forming deposits called plaques. When these plaques grow slowly, they become hard and gradually narrow the artery, interfering with blood flow.
What is the top cause of death in women?
Cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks and strokes, have for decades persisted as the top cause of death of women in the U.S., according to the American Heart Association (AHA).
Is cardiovascular disease the number one cause of death in men?
Cardiovascular disease is also the No. 1 cause of death in men, but women have worse outcomes after certain types of heart attacks. Decades of research shows that early identification, treatment and attention to such risk factors as high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, obesity, family history of cardiovascular disease ...
Heart Disease: What Are the Differences in Men and Women?
Heart disease is a term used to describe any condition that impacts the heart or its blood vessels. Since heart disease comes in many forms, it can vary greatly from person to person. That said, there are several notable differences in heart disease in men when compared to heart disease in women.
Heart Disease Symptoms
Men and women often experience significantly different symptoms of heart disease. Specifically, women are far more likely to have abnormal symptoms of a heart attack, such as:
Cholesterol Plaque Buildup
Another key difference in heart disease for men vs. women is in the areas in which cholesterol plaque accumulates. Men most often experience cholesterol buildup in the largest arteries, which deliver blood to the heart.
Heart Disease Risk Factors
There are several risk factors for heart disease that apply to both men and women, including obesity, smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, and family history. However, some heart disease risk factors mainly impact women far more often than men. These include:
Why do women develop heart disease later in life?
Historically, women tend to develop heart disease later in life than men—by 7 to 10 years. This is due to the protective effects of estrogen. Around the time of menopause, changes in levels of estrogen and other steroid hormones can cause variations in blood vessels, cholesterol levels, and energy metabolism.
What is the difference between a man and a woman?
Men tend to develop disease in the main arteries that feed the heart (CAD), while women are more likely to develop disease in the smaller arteries (microvascular disease). When plaques exist in the main arteries, they behave differently. Men are more likely to have plaque ruptures, while women more frequently have plaque erosions.
How does awareness help patients?
Increased awareness can help patients and doctors work together on lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation, heart-healthy diets, active lifestyles, and diabetes control. Correctly identifying, diagnosing, and managing heart disease early can lead to better outcomes, including quality of life and life expectancy.
Which type of heart disease is more likely to cause plaque ruptures?
Men are more likely to have plaque ruptures, while women more frequently have plaque erosions. Another type of heart disease—valvular heart disease—also has differences in men and women. Different valves are affected at different rates and by different disease processes.
Can heart disease cause shortness of breath?
With time , we have come to recognize that women may have different symptoms of heart disease ( atypical symptoms). These include nausea, shortness of breath, fatigue, dizziness, chest tightness rather than pain, or having pain in other locations such as the back, arm, jaw, or stomach.
Is heart disease a man's problem?
For many years, it was believed that heart disease was a “man’s problem.” The descriptions of a heart attack—a “crushing chest pain” and feeling like “an elephant is sitting on my chest”—were and are still true for most male patients. With time, we have come to recognize that women may have different symptoms of heart disease (atypical symptoms). These include nausea, shortness of breath, fatigue, dizziness, chest tightness rather than pain, or having pain in other locations such as the back, arm, jaw, or stomach.
Do women with diabetes have heart problems?
Women with diabetes tend to have worse heart-related outcomes than men. In addition, women who develop heart disease and experience heart attacks seem to have worse long-term consequences. The reasons for these differences are still unclear and being studied.
What is a woman with chest pain and a man with general pain referred to?
A woman with chest pain and a man with general pain are referred to the cardiologist, who dutifully does some stress testing or a CT angio. The man is diagnosed with obstructive coronary disease, but the woman is not. She's dubbed a complainer and he has angina.
What fish are enrolled in a clinical trial?
If you say for a clinical registry or a clinical trial, you're going to enroll people who had a positive angiogram or have angina measured by a specific scale, then mostly blue fish (men) will be enrolled. A few women will have a presentation like men and these metrics will not exclude them from the registry or trial.
Is heart health included in medical exam?
Women's heart health is now included in medical exam board s, as well as the internal medicine and subspecialty boards. This is due to input from different organizations, including the ACC. Inclusion of test questions on these exams will require that women's heart health is part of the curriculum.
Do women have heart failure?
Women have higher rates of heart failure (HF) and are twice as likely to develop HF with preserved ejection fraction, a disease for which there are still no proven therapies. Women also need more help with prevention: among other issues, they are less likely to get an adequate amount of physical activity, more likely to be obese, ...
Is a woman undertreated for cardiovascular disease?
A. A. A. In many areas of cardiovascular disease, women are undertreated compared with men. They are less likely to receive statins for dyslipidemia and less likely to receive anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation (AFib). After an acute coronary syndrome, they are less likely to be prescribed guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT), ...
