Kate Huntress - Women’s Health Section Editor
Links: 2 References Below
When thinking about the top threat to women’s health around the world, many would probably jump to conditions such as breast cancer or endometriosis. However, to the surprise of most, the leading cause of death in women has consistently been cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Women often experience heart disease in a different way than men, making it historically under-recognized by physicians. Further, practitioners frequently possess implicit bias related to the incidence of CVD in women. A survey of cardiologists found that they were less likely to rate the usefulness of an angiography as high for women compared to men. This bias was correlated with their perception that women were at a lower risk for CVD than men and pose a risk for females who may be under-screened for cardiovascular disease as a result.
CVD manifests later in women than men as a result of high estrogen production before menopause. Although men suffer from CVD at an earlier age, women maintain the same lifetime risk of developing CVD as men. Later onset of the disease is a further disadvantage for women when it comes to preventative health and accurate diagnoses, as it feeds practitioners’ biases that their female patient likely does not have CVD.
On a short-term basis, women who present to the emergency room suffering from a heart attack may be misdiagnosed because women often experience heart attacks differently than men. Specifically, women are more likely to experience shortness of breath; nausea; vomiting; back, shoulder, and jaw pain; and anxiety. Many common textbooks are written based on symptoms presented by men, which leaves women with a decreased likelihood of accurate diagnosis. Similar studies have found that those who receive an incorrect initial diagnosis of heart attack are more likely to die within twelve months, putting the severity of the underrepresentation of female cardiology symptomology into perspective.
How we view women’s health need to be altered in order to ensure that equitable care is given. Data that includes results reported based on sex is essential so that medical professionals can distinguish key differences that may allow them to provide more accurate diagnoses. Further, a lifelong approach to health when considering each female patient should be taken so that considerations (such as increased risk of cardiovascular disease after menopause) are made in order to improve awareness as well as preventative measures. Lifelong disease prevention and awareness in women is critical in the clinical setting as well as the research setting to ensure that diseases such as CVD are not markedly overlooked on the basis of sex.
References
Facts. (n.d.). Www.goredforwomen.org. Retrieved October 12, 2023, from https://www.goredforwomen.org/en/about-heart-disease-in-women/facts#:~:text=Fact%3A%20Losing%20even%20one%20woman
Woodward, M. (2019). Cardiovascular Disease and the Female Disadvantage. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(7), 1165. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16071165
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