Gender Matters: Heart Disease Risk in Women

A helpful overview of the ways our gender can impact how we experience heart disease.

A woman's symptoms are often different from a man's, and she's much more likely than a man to die within a year of having a heart attack. Women also don't seem to fare as well as men do after taking clot-busting drugs or undergoing certain heart-related medical procedures. Research is only now beginning to uncover the biological, medical, and social bases of these and other differences. The hope is that new knowledge will lead to advances in tailoring prevention and treatment to women.

Note: This resource uses the BMI index, which has no predictive or descriptive value when it comes to an individual’s health. Also, it uses the terms "gender" and "sex" interchangeably.

SOURCE: Harvard Health Publishing: Harvard Medical School • LAST UPDATED: March 25, 2017