Heart Disease in Women

What Everyone Should Know About Women's Heart Disease

Heart disease in women doesn't get the attention of the general public as it should. When we think of a victim of heart disease, our first thought is to think of men. We do not usually associate it with women. Unfortunately heart disease in both women and men is the leading killer in the United States. Women have the same heart disease problems such as narrowing of the arteries that transports oxygen to the heart, heart failure, inherited imperfection, diseases of the heart muscles, and other conditions that men have. Each year there are five hundred thousand women in America who die from heart diseases, and with age the risks increase.

The Change of Life

The Cleveland Clinic Heart Center explains that menopause changes the risks of heart disease in women. Post-menopausal women go through many changes in their body. Some of these included changes in cholesterol levels, the body manufactures less estrogen, there are differences in the composition of blood vessels, and also an increased production of the clotting agent fibrinogen.

These changes have been associated with greater risk of heart disease in women, yet it has not been determined exactly what amount of risk these changes actually do have. Post-menopausal women are two to three times more susceptible to heart diseases than a woman of the same age that is pre-menopausal; and women (no matter their age) that have had a hysterectomy encounter the same raised risk.

Previously when studies were done on heart disease in women, scientist hypothesized that hormone replacement therapy could help post-menopausal women to fight heart disease. The long-term study has not been able to confirm this; therefore physicians are no longer recommending hormone replacement therapy to fight heart disease. We cannot change menopause, however we can control some of the other risk factors.