Women & Heart Disease

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for owmen over 35 years old.

• Heart disease kills more women than all types of cancer combined.

• Heart disease is not just a disease of older women. It is the leading cause of death for women age 35 and older.

• Women often experience milder symptoms of heart disease. About one third of women who have a heart attack have no chest pain at all.

• Heart disease kills six times as many women as breast cancer

• 38 percent of women — compared with 25 percent of men — will die within one year of a heart attack.

• Heart disease is a particular problem among minority women, with African American and Hispanic women dying at a higher rate than white women.

• Over 40 percent of all female deaths in the United States occur from heart disease.

• Low blood levels of "good" cholesterol (high density lipoprotein or HDL) appear to be a stronger predictor of heart disease death in women than in men in the over 65 age group. Triclycerides (another type of fat) may be a particularly important risk factor in women and the elderly.

• In a survey of 1000 women in 2003, only 13 percent believed that heart disease and stroke were the greatest health threats to women.

• More women than men die each year of heart disease. Yet women receive only:
  • 33 percent of angioplasties, stents and bypass surgeries
  • 28 percent of implantable defibrillators

• Women comprise only 25 percent of participants in all heart-related research studies.