Heart Disease in Women

Doctors have known for a while now that men and women experience heart disease differently.  For one thing, before menopause, estrogen plays a role in protecting women from heart disease and thus they do not typically have a heart attack before the age of 72.  For men, the average age is 64.  The bad news is that women do catch up “making heart disease the leading cause of death for both sexes overall during non-pandemic times.”  

Another cause of concern is that while younger women (under the age of 65), have fewer heart attacks, they are much more serious than those of the men under 65.  Researchers at the Mayo Clinic went looking for answers by studying 7 million hospitalized heart attack patients. Their study, published in January’s Mayo Clinic Proceedings, showed that “women who are hospitalized with a heart attack are less likely than men to receive life-saving treatments, such as angioplasty, in which clogged arteries are opened; and mechanical circulatory support, in which devices are used to improve blood flow.

Another significant link they discovered was that while estrogen does provides some heart protection, women who suffer from moderate to severe symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes and sleep disturbances have a greater risk of a heart attack or stroke.  One reason may be that severe hot flashes “are associated with artery stiffness, inflammation and vascular problems, which are linked to heart disease.”  Lack of sleep in itself can cause problems as well as interfere with a person’s motivation to exercise.  

Brest cancer also puts women at risk for cardiac disease.  The January’s Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network reported that, “survivors were at greater risk of life-threatening blood clots called deep vein thrombosis, arrhythmia, heart failure, heart valve disease and sudden cardiac arrest compared to women who had not had cancer.”   Researchers also said while the risk is far greater in the first year after a breast cancer diagnosis; the risk remained elevated for five years. 

Researchers also found that women are three times more likely than men to suffer from hearts attacks known as myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries (MINOCAs).  This in itself is a problem as the type of equipment used to test for MINOCAs is not always used on women and many times the patient is told she did not have a heart attack.  It is so common that doctors say if you experienced symptoms of a heart attack but are told you did not have one, ask if you are a candidate for advanced imaging testing.  

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Source:  aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2021/women-heart-disease.html