CardiOLDlogy : Why Women Like My Mom Are Left Behind.

Today is National Wear Red Day. An annual event held each first Friday of February, dedicated to raising awareness about heart disease in women. The story below is one of the reasons I started Kento.

Remember to trust your instincts when it comes to heart health.

2021:  My mom is in excellent health. She exercises regularly and maintains a healthy diet. Over the summer, she experienced persistent tiredness and back pain that lasted for a month. One morning she woke up particularly tired and felt something was off. She went to her doctor who dismissed her symptoms as stress and she went back home. In the evening she sensed something was wrong. Trusting her instincts, she promptly headed to the ER, where she received a diagnosis of a heart attack. She left the hospital a few days later with a stent in her coronary artery and some pills. Due to her active lifestyle and healthy weight, her cardiologist believed she didn't require cardiac rehabilitation. She was sent home with the infamous "see you in 3 months" leaving her with more questions than answers.

Now, fast forward to fall: Her brother, my uncle, a dedicated triathlete, also sensed that something was off one morning: He felt exhausted and couldn't climb stairs without becoming breathless. He went to his GP who sent him straight to the ER where he was diagnosed with a heart attack. Pretty much the same severity as my mom’s. His treatment included a stent, and he was immediately enrolled in cardiac rehabilitation, despite his athletic background. His cardiologist recognized the benefits of cardiac rehab, providing individuals with the multidisciplinary tools to regain control over their heart disease. 

So, what drove the significant difference in their treatment given these similar stories? It would be easy to point a finger at a practitioner simply overlooking treatment options.

Gender-based differences in diagnosis and treatment in heart disease (and beyond) are systemic and perpetuate biases that tend to sideline women.

The outcome is CardiOLDlogy (sorry for the bad pun but you get the point).  Women's heart disease symptoms are frequently overlooked or misinterpreted : Women are up to 50% more likely to get misdiagnosed than men (British Heart Foundation), up to 30% less likely to be prescribed cardiac rehabilitation (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), and only 13% of cardiologists in the US are women. And by the way, Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) kills more than twice as many women as breast cancer. 

These unfortunate facts drive us at Kento and more and more people in other progressive organizations to make heart health accessible for all and advocate for women’s equitable participation in cardiac rehab.

In the meantime, it's essential to internalize what my mom did: Trust your instincts. This is confirmed by research: “The take-home advice for everyone (but especially for women): trust your instincts if you think you might be having a heart attack — call 911 and get it checked out. If you do end up in the hospital, verify with your physician that you've received all the advice and prescriptions you need to keep your heart as healthy as possible” (Harvard Health).

To my family and yours: Let's break the silence surrounding illness. Speaking up can save lives. 💬❤️