Women face unique barriers to heart health compared to men. After menopause, women's risk of heart disease increases due to lower estrogen levels which can lead to higher blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, obesity, and other risk factors. Women also experience some different heart attack symptoms like shortness of breath and pain in the upper back or abdomen compared to the chest pain more commonly felt by men. Additionally, women and doctors can misattribute heart attack warning signs to other causes like fatigue. More research is still needed as well, as most heart disease studies and clinical trials have not sufficiently included women participants. It is important for women to be aware of their risk factors and symptoms of heart attacks.

1. Finding Heart:
Women and
Cardiovascular Risk
But with COVID-19 and everything we’re doing to look out for family members and
friends, it’s especially easy to lose track of heart health and ignore the warning signs for
heart disease and heart attacks. Especially take note of the known signs and symptoms
of heart attacks.
● Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center or left side
of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes — or it may go away and then
return. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.
● Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Symptoms can include pain or
discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.
● Shortness of breath. This can occur with or without chest discomfort.

2. ● Other signs. Other possible signs include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea
or lightheadedness or sudden dizziness.
“As with men, women’s most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or
discomfort,” says Dr. Rosa Coppolecchia, Director of U.S. Medical Affairs Cardiology,
Consumer Health at Bayer. “But women are somewhat more likely than men to
experience some other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath; pressure or
pain in the lower chest and upper abdomen; dizziness, lightheadedness or fainting;
upper back pressure; nausea or vomiting; extreme fatigue and back or jaw pain.”
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Barriers to Heart Health for Women
In fact, despite the stereotype that heart disease is a “man’s issue,” 6.2% of women
suffered from heart disease between 2013 and 2016 versus 7.4% of men, the AHA says
in its 2020 update.2
Women face several barriers to heart health compared with men.
First, risk factors for heart disease increase when they reach menopause, with an
overall increase in heart attacks about 10 years after menopause, the AHA says.6
Researchers suspect that the lower estrogen levels may contribute to the higher risk
factors,6 which are1:

3. ● High blood pressure
● Unhealthy cholesterol levels
● Smoking
● Diabetes
● Obesity
● Having an unhealthy diet
● Physical inactivity
● Drinking too much alcohol
Second, women might attribute some of the symptoms to other causes. For example,
“with extreme fatigue, it’s difficult to differentiate between having a potential heart attack
and being tired from having a long day or week,” Dr. Coppolecchia says.
Even the medical community has more difficulty diagnosing heart attacks in women:
Compared with men, women are 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed after having a
heart attack, according to a 2016 study from the University of Leeds in the U.K.7
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4. Third, we don’t know enough about the differences between men and women regarding
heart disease. “We have very limited studies on women and heart disease,” Dr.
Coppolecchia says.
Women account for less than a third of all subjects in heart disease studies, according
to a 2014 George Washington University report.8And less than a third of cardiovascular
disease clinical trials that include women report outcomes by sex.8
The medical community is working to better understand how heart disease affects
women, Dr. Coppolecchia says, such as including more of them in clinical trials. For
now, as the following two women can attest — both advocates for heart health through
WomenHeart (a Bayer partner), a national patient advocacy organization for women
with heart disease — the most important steps are for women to be mindful of their
heart health and to pay close attention to the warning signs.