Heart disease is is widely seen as a male problem, but statistics show it is actually the top killer of women. While breast cancer is commonly perceived as the greater issue for them, cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills more than half of women in Europe, even though is largely preventable.
The risk of heart disease in women is underestimated even by doctors, although data shows that CVD causes 51% of deaths in women and 42% of deaths in men in Europe. Meanwhile, breast cancer kills 3 percent of European women, according to the European Society of Cardiology.
“Women’s risk of heart disease tends to be underestimated by both the public and the medical profession because of the perception that oestrogen protects them. In reality this just delays the onset of CVD by 10 years. The result is that women’s risk factors are left untreated, leaving them more vulnerable to heart attack, heart failure and sudden cardiac death when the protection fades after menopause,” said Dr Susanna Price, ESC spokesperson and consultant cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London.
Despite the common misconceptions, experts point that the risks of smoking are higher in women because women metabolize nicotine faster, especially those taking oral contraceptives. Also, type 2 diabetes doubles CVD risk in men but more than triples the risk in women and women are also more likely to be severely disabled after a stroke than men.
Another reason CVD is under-recognized and under-treated in women is that the symptoms are different. Instead of the chest pain felt by men, women having a heart attack may experience nausea/vomiting, shortness of breath, jaw pain, fatigue, palpitations, fainting or cardiac arrest.
Also, it’s been observed that women are less likely to receive proven therapies like aspirin, statins, coronary revascularization and oral anticoagulants to prevent stroke. But another reality is that women may respond differently to therapy because they have different hormone levels, lower body weight and a higher percentage of body fat and in many cases the safety and effectiveness of treatments have been tested mainly in men.