A New Way to Think About Women’s Heart Health

Women are speaking more openly about periods, pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause, bringing once-taboo topics into public conversation. Clinicians and health systems need to now connect these experiences with what the science is telling us about how they influence a woman’s cardiovascular health throughout her life.A woman may see a gynecologist for her irregular periods, a therapist for her depression, and a primary care doctor or cardiologist for her high blood pressure. Each clinician may focus on an important concern. But what is often missing is a shared understanding of how those concerns fit together and what that means for her lifelong cardiovascular health. A narrow lens has too often been applied to women’s health, defining it as care of reproductive organs and pregnancy. Reproductive health is essential to a woman’s well-being, but women’s health is much broader. We now know that menstrual patterns, pregnancy, and menopause can provide important information about cardiovascular health. Our approach to care should reflect this.These missed connections matter because cardiovascular disease is the greatest threat to women’s health today. Approximately 1 in 3 deaths in w...