Thousands of women are dying from heart disease worldwide because of the misconception that it is a “man’s disease”, doctors and scientists say.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) was the “number one killer” of women but, despite significant progress in its medical management, many were dying “unnecessarily” because they were underdiagnosed, undertreated and under-represented in clinical trials, the experts said.
A consensus statement drawn up by 33 leading health figures affiliated with the British Cardiovascular Society aimed to address unmet needs, ensuring parity of care and improving the health outcomes of women with CVD in the UK and worldwide.
Among other things, it called for dedicated women’s heart champions and heart hubs to prevent the “needless death toll” from an essentially preventable disease.
Conventional risk factors, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, were often not treated as promptly or as appropriately as they were in men, despite accounting for about half of all preventable cardiovascular disease deaths, the statement said.
Women also faced particular cultural, societal, and financial issues, which magnified their heart disease risks. In addition, their biology, physiology and body shape not only affected their risk of CVD but also the effectiveness of diagnostic procedures and treatment, it added.
Healthcare professionals and the public mistakenly believed that women’s risk of CVD was lower than men’s, the statement said. “Myths and unconscious biases within clinical practices and societal perceptions further obscure the reality that heart disease does not discriminate by sex,” it said.
All too often women’s voices went unheard and their heart symptoms were not taken seriously enough, it added.
Published in the medical journal Heart, the consensus statement said: “Globally, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women. However, the misconception that it is a ‘man’s disease’ underlines that CVD in women has contributed to its under-recognition and undertreatment.
“Over 3.6 million women in the UK are currently affected by ischaemic heart disease, which kills one in 14 women.”
The experts said there was a “discrepancy” between men and women when it came to diagnosis and treatment, with women less likely to receive certain treatments or diagnostic tests.
Women were also “frequently under-referred for treatment, which leads to poorer outcomes”, they added. The statement also highlighted that women were “under-represented” in clinical research about CVD.
The statement’s lead author, Prof Vijay Kunadian, said: “Heart disease, in particular coronary artery disease, is the number one killer for women in the UK and worldwide. And yet, even to this day, we see that their symptoms are being ignored or [women are] told there is nothing wrong with them, or treated for something else, when all along they might be suffering from a heart problem.”
Global databases were showing “year after year” that women were being undertreated and that was leading to higher death rates after heart attacks. “We can’t ignore that any more, it is about time that we do something about it.”
Lives were being lost needlessly because “if women received the correct treatment, then their lives could be saved”, Kunadian said.
“People assume it is a men’s disease – when a man complains he is more likely to get the attention from the ambulance or the doctors for example,” she added. “So we need to change the perspective of people and make people think this is also a woman’s condition.”
In the UK, the Department of Health and Social Care has vowed to prioritise women’s health, which it said had been neglected by the previous government.
