Heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women in the United States.
But did you know its presentation depends on your sex?
We know heart disease is a devastating condition that does permanent damage to the body. However, men and women share the disease burden differently, depending on specific factors.
While women account for 60.6% of US stroke deaths, more men live and die with coronary heart disease than women — sometimes by as much as 200% depending on the age bracket.
I want you to know the different symptoms and factors affecting you as an individual. By addressing problems and warning signs early, you can stay off my operating table and lead a longer, happier life.
Factors contributing to heart disease symptoms for men and women
The way heart disease presents in the body largely depends on whether you’re male or female.
However, age does also have some impact on its severity and intensity.
In general, women’s presentations of heart disease tend to lag behind men by about 10 years.
That means you can roughly match up 70-year-old women to 80-year-old men for incidents of heart disease.
But the age gap is quickly disappearing in my experience. I now routinely operate on women in their 50s.
Many contributing factors of heart disease stem from gender/sex differences rather than age differences. These include:
Anatomical considerations
Blockages in your blood vessels (or plaque buildup) may depend on whether you’re male or female.
Women tend to have smaller blood vessels, which means heart disease is more common in their microvasculature (think distal blood vessels).
Men, however, tend to experience plaque buildup in larger vessels supplying blood to the heart.
This means heart disease is localized in men and diffused in women, which indicates their major symptoms may tend to express differently.
We’ll cover this in more detail later on.
Addiction
Smoking addiction is another factor thought to contribute to the heart disease disparity between men and women.
Heart disease was historically thought of as a disease for men, since there were many more men with it than women — and many of these men smoked. In 1963, Americans smoked enough per capita to have half a pack per day per adult.
This gap, however, has equalized considerably over the years, with 67% of men smoking daily compared to 41.9% of women.
Workforce stress
Workplace stress outside the home was predominantly a male factor until the mid 1800s. Today, both men and women work in full-time roles, which means they can both experience some level of cardiovascular stress.
It should be mentioned these stressors look different depending on the individual in question. Women tend to feel more stressed about job strain and low control over their work, while men tend to stress more about job insecurity. Some studies indicate women experience more workplace stress than men.
Menopause and perimenopause
Another interesting difference between male and female expressions of heart disease has to do with puberty onset.
We know, for instance, that women are entering puberty earlier, which means they may enter perimenopause and menopause earlier. This contributes to the loss of estrogen and progesterone, which are thought to protect the body from heart disease.
When women lose these protective effects, they become more likely to get heart disease.
Heart disease symptoms for men and women
There tends to be a difference in heart disease symptoms between men and women.
Men tend to express symptoms like:
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- Chest pain
- Heartburn or indigestion
- Sweating
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Women don’t always express the emblematic symptoms of heart disease, which means they may have an atypical presentation that’s harder for doctors to pinpoint.
Perhaps a woman feels upper abdominal pain, or notices an increasing shortness of breath. Maybe she complains of nausea and vomiting, although she doesn’t express the other symptoms associated with heart attacks.
Remember: if you think you’re exhibiting symptoms of heart disease, you need to get in contact with a healthcare provider immediately.
The constant in male and female presentations of heart disease
Both men and women suffer from different symptoms and factors of heart disease.
However, there are some health risks that remain the same between genders.
I’m talking specifically about metabolic syndrome — the great equalizer between men and women facing chronic disease.
There are essentially no differences in the presentation of metabolic disease between men and women. In my opinion, it’s the biggest health crisis facing America.
Metabolic disease can lead to diabetes and obesity in both men and women, bringing them closer to an actual heart attack.
Plus, metabolic disease can overwhelm the protective effects of progesterone and estrogen, which raises women’s risk for heart disease.
If you have metabolic syndrome, it doesn’t matter whether you’re male or female. You already have an enormous risk of winding up on my operating table.
Heart disease prevention steps for men and women
Women should be just as concerned about heart disease as men.
And if you’re not taking corrective actions now, you could be leaving yourself vulnerable.
Yes, it may occur later for some and may not present with typical symptoms, but you must pay attention to all your symptoms and take your metabolic health seriously — regardless of gender.
I recommend starting with:
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- At least 30 minutes of daily exercise.
- A diet of whole, real food.
- Plenty of sunshine and outdoor time.
- Stress-relieving activities.
- Metabolic health coaching.
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If you’re unsure whether you have metabolic syndrome or not, you can use my free metabolic health calculator to get a better idea of where you stand. Once you fill out a few details, I can email a list of suggestions so you can take back control of your health.