ANN ARBOR, Mich. – When it comes to cardiac care, women are at a distinct disadvantage. They’re less likely to be included in research, less likely to be diagnosed with heart problems, and less likely to receive treatment.
Research by the University of Michigan found that even when women undergo heart surgery, they often receive less aggressive care. They’re also more often receiving that care at hospitals of lower quality.
Each day, thousands of open-heart surgeries are performed across the United States. During many of those operations, doctors may find a secondary issue in the heart that they will fix at the same time, but national studies from U-M find women are significantly less likely to get those additional problems fixed.
Dr. Katie Wagner, who led the research, said this goes against surgical guidelines.
“That we found women are less likely to receive these guideline-recommended procedures, highlights a huge opportunity to maximize the benefits women receive when undergoing high-risk heart surgery,” Wagner said.
Women also face higher risks during heart bypass surgery.
“There are over 100,000 heart bypass surgeries every year, and despite how common this is, women have a 30-40% higher risk of dying after heart surgery than men, and that’s a gap that hasn’t narrowed in decades,” Wagner said. “So one of my studies trying to understand what’s causing this gap was looking at the hospitals where women receive their heart surgery, and we found that women were more likely to go to low-quality hospitals where they had a much higher risk of dying.”
Wagner said a lack of research is a key factor for the disparities.
“So much of the research we’ve done in heart disease has been studied in men and just applied to women,” Wagner said. “So, health systems really need to invest in research in women in cardiovascular disease to ensure we’re providing the highest quality care and that will really improve outcomes for all of our patients.”
The issue also crosses over to medical treatment, where women are less likely to receive guideline-directed therapy for a heart attack. All of this highlights how much room there is to improve women’s care, simply by doing what is already being provided to more men.
Women with heart trouble are often referred for care later and sicker. So if you suspect something is wrong, you need to push to get to that specialist. If your doctor isn’t taking your symptoms seriously, find a doctor who will.