Among over five million cases of heart failure that happen in a given year, around 53% comprise men and 47% women. Despite the fact the percentages are so similar, heart problems are often under-recognized and under-treated in women.
Cardiologist Dr. Michelle O’Donoghue, a professor of medicine at Harvard, states, “There are gender-based gaps at every possible level, from women’s awareness of symptoms to how they’re treated in the emergency department and doctor’s offices.” Read on to discover why the gender gap exists and the strategies we need to employ to narrow it down.
Women Are Unaware of the Threat of Heart Disease
In the US, the government has created various campaigns centered on helping women boost their awareness of heart disease. However, a survey by the American Heart Association indicates that only 44% of women know that heart disease is their most lethal health threat.
That is, awareness has decreased rather than increased over the years. Women also take longer to seek help after experiencing symptoms of a heart attack.
Differing Symptoms
Women also have different systems of heart disease than men. Most people think that a heart attack manifests itself as a strong sense of pain or pressure on the chest, but women can have far more subtle signs of this event.
For instance, women may feel breathless or have pain in their jaw. They may also experience tingling in one or both arms.
Different Causes of Heart Attacks
The causes of heart attacks can also differ among men and women. Most heart attacks occur when a blood clot blocks a narrowed artery that supplies the heart. In these cases, surgery such as coronary bypass grafting surgery can help create a new, unrestricted pathway for blood to reach the heart. It can greatly reduce the risk of heart failure and improve symptoms such as angina (chest pain).
However, other problems can disrupt blood flow, including myocardial infarction (which can occur when arteries temporarily tighten), tears in the arteries, and “broken heart syndrome,” which occurs when people experience severe emotional or physical stress and a spike in hormones changes the heart’s shape.
Narrowing The Gap
Increasing public awareness through public health campaigns, educational programs in workplaces, and social media campaigns can help raise awareness of the gender gap, but that is only one piece of the puzzle.
To effect real, lasting change, governments must back research and clinical trials and ensure that scientists report sex-specific data in research findings. Healthcare systems must adopt sex-specific approaches, such as developing sex-specific diagnostic criteria.
It is also vital to address social health determinants that disproportionately affect women and harness technologies that enable health specialists to identify patterns in women’s cardiovascular health that can lead to better prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
Even though heart disease affects both men and women, women are often misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed and they take longer to seek help. This disparity can be attributed to various factors, including the fact that women lack knowledge of heart disease and have different symptoms from men.
Raising awareness, investing in research, and developing sex-specific approaches to diagnosis and treatment are just a few key ways that the gap can be narrowed.
