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A new framework reveals the stages of women’s heart health
Doctors now have guidance for earlier intervention in girls’ and women’s cardiovascular health
Heart disease poses a significant threat to women, but research into the issue has been lacking for years. Now, for the first time, four medical societies have published a shared framework and clinical guidance to help doctors identify and treat cardiovascular risk throughout a woman’s life.
What did the group outline?
The American Heart Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine have created a system to help redefine heart health for girls and women. The group outlines four “Female Life Stages” where hormones could affect heart health: perimenarche (ages 8-15), regular ovarian cycling (ages 15-44), perimenopause (ages 45-51) and postmenopause (age 51 and older). Pregnancy at any life stage is also included. Three manuscripts published in the AHA’s flagship journal, Circulation, include guidelines for navigating these stages.
The coalition asserts that because “female-specific biology” affects girls’ and women’s hearts “throughout their lives,” it requires “connected, holistic care starting in adolescence” to reflect “transitions not found in the male models” that dominate health care: “periods, pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause,” said Stat.
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What happens in adolescence and young adulthood “impacts your life for years and decades to come,” so acting at that point can “really change the course of someone’s cardiovascular health story,” Sadiya Khan, the chair of the group and a professor of cardiovascular epidemiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said to Stat. Keeping the various aspects of women’s healthcare “all connected and not siloed,” even though that’s “typically how we have approached care,” will require an “integrative approach.”
Why was a new framework needed?
Heart disease is already the number one killer of women globally, and both heart disease and stroke are “projected to rise significantly in women over the next two decades,” said NBC News. Still, very little is known about how female biology affects heart health. Scientists were “not required to include women in clinical trials on heart disease until 1993,” and today, “fewer women are still included in the trials than men.” Women’s healthcare is also “often uniquely fragmented across different specialties” throughout their lifetime.
Ultimately, girls and women “represent half the population,” and “every clinician, every specialty and every health system” has a role to play in their well-being, Khan said at Time. Women can “do much to protect their health,” but they should not have to “connect the dots in their care alone.”
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Theara Coleman has worked as a staff writer at The Week since September 2022. She frequently writes about technology, education, literature and general news. She was previously a contributing writer and assistant editor at Honeysuckle Magazine, where she covered racial politics and cannabis industry news.
