I recently attended an incredible Her Heart Australia Cardiology Conference in Melbourne highlighting women’s cardiovascular health. I took away with me a lot of information that was relative to today’s representation of women receiving heart health support which I would like to summarise here. Even with all the technology and AI at our disposal today, there is still a disparity between men and women’s health and heart health.
These inequities are also highlighted in a journal article published by Journal of the American College of Cardiology (2024) titled Addressing the Global Burden of Cardiovascular Disease in Women by Vervoort & et. al in that there is still a delay in women’s presentations to health care, recognition of symptoms, diagnosis and treatments. Women are less likely to report their symptoms and less likely to go to a doctor.
Women may exhibit different symptoms to men during a heart attack. For example, they may experience chest discomfort rather than the extreme chest pain of the elephant sitting on the chest. Women’s pain may be felt in the shoulder blades or back, jaw pain, and experience shortness of breath, extreme fatigue and nausea.
The Heart Foundation report that one person dies every eight minutes in Australia from cardiovascular disease of which one woman dies every hour of heart disease. However, women have higher rates of comorbidities than men. For example,
Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Women
Obesity – Women are up to 50% more obese than men.
Diabetes – 28% women, vs. 25% men, with women being at 2-4 x higher risk of a cardiovascular event than men with diabetes.
Blood Pressure – higher rate of uncontrolled high blood pressure and less likely to receive anti-hypertensive treatment. A woman with a systolic blood pressure of 130-139/90 is at two times increased risk of cardiovascular disease at a lower blood pressure compared to men.
Cholesterol – women are less likely to be prescribed a cholesterol lowering medication and report greater incidence of muscular symptoms from being prescribed a Statin (47.9%).
Diet – women are more prone to emotional eating than men.
Exercise – women are less likely to meet adequate activity levels than men. However, studies have shown any BMI will benefit from exercise and reduce the risk of CVD.
Cardiac rehabilitation – women are less likely to uptake in cardiac rehabilitation yet would benefit greatly because they do less physical exercise than men.
Smoking – Women who smoke are found to be at 25% greater risk of ischaemic heart disease compared to men.
Anxiety and Depression – women have a greater rate of depression than men post ACS with Takotsubo, or broken heart syndrome is more prevalent in women than men. Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) is more prevalent in women than men with anxiety, and high levels of exercise being a core component to SCAD.
Quality of Care
In a UK study of 40-74 year old adults, it was found that women present with worse cardiometabolic profiles and were less likely to receive blood pressure treatment, diabetic medication or primary prevention, as opposed to men (Pana et al., 2022).
In summary
Cardiovascular health care that takes into account women across their lifespan needs to be addressed which include gender-specific clinical trials, risk factor management and education. For example, gender difference education in the symptomology, risk factors and pathophysiology is a crucial first step in raising awareness of women’s cardiovascular health. A big thank you to Her Heart for raising awareness of women and cardiovascular disease and for an incredible conference.
This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please seek professional medical advice from your health practitioner for any concerns.
Vervoort, D. et. al., (2024). Addressing the Global Burden of Cardiovascular Disease in Women. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2024.04.028
Pana, T.A., et al., (2022). Long term prognostic impact of sex-specific longitudinal changes in blood pressure. The EPIC-Norfolk Prospective population cohort study. European Journal of Preventative Cardiology. doi: 10.1093/eurjpc/zwab104
