Although cardiovascular disease kills more women than men, women’s treatment is largely based on research performed on men. Women are underrepresented in basic science studies and in clinical research. “Researchers focus on men because coronary heart disease manifests earlier in life in males. Moreover, women still do not consider heart disease as a ‘woman’s disease’. So they don’t see the relevance or potential benefit of being included in research trials”, explains Dr Maryam Kavousi. An expert in women’s health, she works at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). “People still seem to believe that cardiovascular disease is mostly a men’s problem.”

 

Different hearts

Results of male-dominated studies cannot be generalized to women because there are differences in diagnosis, treatment and complications between the sexes. Examples are:

• Women may have different symptoms and they describe them differently, e.g. an infarction in a woman may be accompanied by extreme fatigue, dizziness or nausea.
• Women may respond differently to cardiac drugs.
• Female cardiovascular problems often manifest later in life (after menopause).
• The outcomes are often worse in women.

 

Silent killer

Diagnosis and treatment are hindered by a lack of awareness of the above-mentioned differences among patients as well as health care providers. For instance, women are more likely than men to report other symptoms than chest pain during a heart attack, resulting in misdiagnosis. Maryam Kavousi: “This can result in a delayed treatment”.

 

Women’s health research

The European Gender Medicine Project EUGENMED is developing a roadmap to improve the implementation of sex in European health research. “EUGenMed will work to identify bridges and possible collaborations amongst stakeholders in order to instigate implementation of sex and gender in biomedical sciences, practices and health research in Europe”, explained Professor Ineke Klinge at the project’s kick-off. Patricia Reilly of the European Commission: “Research in this area will lead to better targeted and therefore more efficient treatment strategies than the previous one size fits all approach”.

 

Related projects and further reading

Read the article ‘How Does Heart Disease Affect Women?’ of the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more about European heart research on www.HorizonHealth.eu.

Learn more about European stroke research on www.HorizonHealth.eu.

Our In Focus article ‘Power to the patient’ discusses recent developments in personalised medicine.