Despite being deeply involved in promoting “detect early, act early” strategies for heart disease, and having personally experienced a missed murmur from my own (former) cardiologist, I was largely ignorant of how different the reality is for women.
This was brought home to me during discussions around an opportunity focused on women’s heart health.
My initial reaction was: we’re focused on 100% of hearts - male and female. Heart disease is heart disease. The same risks. The same pathways to diagnosis. The same urgency.
And it is - once it’s detected. But for women, getting to that diagnosis is an uphill struggle.
For women, heart disease is more likely to be missed, misread, or dismissed entirely. And that gap isn’t marginal, it’s systemic. And frankly, in this day and age, that is inexcusable.
WomenHeart reports that women under 55 were seven times more likely than men to be sent home from the emergency room without proper cardiac testing.
According to the American Heart Association, nearly half of women ages 20 and older are living with some form of cardiovascular, yet women are more likely to experience delays in treatment and less likely to receive appropriate cardiac care.
The problem isn’t just clinical. It’s also cultural.
Much of what we define as “typical” heart disease symptoms was built on male data. For decades, heart disease has carried a male bias that has shaped research, training, diagnostics, and even patient awareness.
The result is a system where women are consistently at a disadvantage when it comes to early detection. Symptoms more common in women such as nausea, back or jaw pain, are easier to dismiss.
Heart disease is already silent. That’s true for everyone. But for women, the silence is compounded by a system that is less tuned to hear it.
I’ve focused my work on early detection because it gives patients agency - the ability to bring objective data into the consultation and trigger action sooner, not later.
Because once someone walks into a consultation with data indicating potential issues, they’re no longer describing symptoms. They’re presenting evidence. And that puts them on a pathway to diagnosis.
We can give patients agency. But the system has to listen.
