Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Heart disease in women is currently under-recognised, under-diagnosed, under-treated, and under-researched, despite coronary heart disease (CHD) being the leading cause of mortality for women globally.1 Women face specific barriers in accessing treatment for heart disease including healthcare professionals and patients tending to underestimate their cardiovascular risk.2 There are psychological, social, economic, and cultural risk factors that disproportionately affect women such as depression, intimate partner violence, and sociocultural roles. Conditions specific to women can also increase cardiovascular disease risk such as premature menopause, gestational hypertension, and diabetes. Additionally, there are sex-specific differences in how women present clinically with heart disease, being less likely to present with chest pain, and more likely to have pain in the jaw, neck, shoulder or fatigue, and nausea. Together, these factors contribute to timely presentation and appropriate treatment for women during and after a myocardial infarction,2 resulting in women less likely to receive appropriate treatment and more likely to die in hospital compared to men.