title: Is cardiovascular disease in women inevitable?: preparing for menopause and beyond.
abstract: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death for American women. Women share many of the same risk factors (RFs) for CVD as men, and in both, women and men, these RFs are associated with age. Additionally, the prevalence of multiple RFs increases with age. Though menopause has been thought to increase CVD risk in women, the association between menopause and age obfuscates a causal relationship. While men's CVD mortality has decreased since the 1980s, women's CVD mortality has climbed until 2000. This has resulted in a sex-related CVD mortality gap, with women having higher mortality than men since 1984. Contributing to this female-majority CVD mortality gap is a lack of awareness of CVD risk among women and their physicians. Awareness campaigns, such as the Heart Truth and the Red Dress symbol, appear to have improved recognition of CVD risk in women. Further, female-specific guidelines have been developed to prevent and reduce CVD in women. Though the current understanding of the role of menopause in CVD is controversial, studies suggest that menopause does not exacerbate CVD independent of aging, and hormone replacement therapy is not effective for secondary prevention of CVD.
authors.affiliation: Women's Heart Center, Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA.
authors.forename: Jimmy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Johannes
authors.forename: C Noel
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Bairey Merz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D020249:Hormone Replacement Therapy; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D016387:Women's Health; D055815:Young Adult