Heart Diseases are not Gender biased: “creating awareness” can correct perception & bring better life-style changes

A WOMAN’S LIFETIME RISK OF DYING FROM HEART DISEASE IS EIGHT TIMES GREATER THAN THAT OF BREAST CANCER.

- Dr. T. S. Kler

Do we really have significant gender biased natural inclination for heart diseases?

Here when we talk of the bias, ironically the perception has always been in favour of women, with men being considered as the sufferers of heart diseases. Well, the reality is that heart diseases do not affect just men it effects women equally. Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in women all over the world, and in India too.

A woman’s lifetime risk of dying from heart disease is eight times greater than that of breast cancer.

Here we should also note that socioeconomic factors have been shown to have implication on heart disease in women. Females from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are at higher risk of developing heart disease but are less concerned about its treatment whereas females from the upper socio-economic background are more concerned about preventive measures of cardiovascular disease.

Women tend to have heart attacks at a later age than men may be due to estrogen in early part of life.

However in last two decades there has been a worrisome increase in the number of young women (aged 35–54 years) hospitalized with acute heart attack while during the same period hospitalisation of young men has shown significant decline. These young women (< 55 years) with heart attack are at a higher risk for sudden cardiac death as compared to older women (≥ 55 years). One of the important reason for such a difference in outcome is nature of symptoms of heart disease.

Up to 35% of women do not experience chest pain with heart attack while in about 50%-60% of women, the initial presentation of heart disease is heart attack or sudden cardiac death, with no prior report of chest pain.