Do we need a women-centric approach to treating heart disease?
Women have unique needs when it comes to treating heart disease, says Dr. Leslie Saxon. In this HealthMakers video, she outlines the challenges of effective cardiology for women's health.
Transcript
Women's awareness of heart disease has increased. Women tend to present later. And they present in different ways. Would a woman be more sensitive at detecting
that in another woman? Maybe. [MUSIC PLAYING]
I think most women would argue yes. It's very interesting. In cardiology, even though the percentage
of women professionals in neurosurgery and other surgical specialties has dramatically increased, in cardiology, it's like around 20%.
And some people think that that's part of the reason that women's cardiovascular care is not fully realized.
In other words, if you look at almost every clinical trial, women only represent 25%, 30% of the population
that are enrolled in the trial, or that they've tested the new therapy on, when they're 50% of the population or more.
So why is that? Well, just anecdotally, I can tell you that women do tend to underplay their symptoms.
That they tend to be caregivers. That's well documented. So women's awareness of heart disease has increased.
Women tend to present later. And they present in different ways. Would a woman be more sensitive to detecting that in another woman?
Maybe. We've done some studies with implanted devices to try to figure out if the women who implant them are more likely to implant more women than not.
We haven't found that. We haven't found that if you go-- that women implant more women. Now, maybe that's because they're not referred those women in the first place.
I don't know. But it's interesting to me that in specialties where women get to choose, in other words, patients,
they'll always choose another woman. If you look at OB/GYN, or pediatrics, women generally will choose same-sex providers.
heart disease
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