Heart disease is not just a man's disease. The field of gender-specific medicine considers the differences between men and women.

Men present with heart disease at a much younger age than women—a fact that led researchers to believe that women were not at risk. In fact, more American women die each year from heart disease than men.

	CAT scan showing calcifications in a male patient.
	CAT scan showing calcifications in a female patient.

For more than a decade, the number of women who die from coronary artery disease and stroke in the United States has far exceeded the number of those who die from all forms of cancer combined. Although we have always associated heart disease with older men, autopsy studies in accident victims have revealed that by the age of 35, 8 percent of women and 18 percent of men have already established significant artery disease.

It is important for both physicians and patients to recognize that heart disease is a reality for women. Earlier heart-disease prevention and treatment should be undertaken by women in a manner similar to that already employed for breast cancer. Women face a lifetime risk of developing breast cancer that is only 3 percent higher than their incidence of developing atherosclerosis by age 35.

However, physicians need to be aware that therapies that are effective for men are not always appropriate for women. For example, interventional procedures such as angioplasty and coronary artery bypass grafts are historically associated with greater complications in women than in men. This gap may stem in part from the fact that women typically present with more advanced disease at the time of treatment. Gender-specific diagnostic technologies and smaller treatment devices are being introduced to help bridge this gap and they appear to be working. The ultimate hope is that by identifying women with heart disease earlier physicians can improve their therapy results.

The concept of gender-specific medicine has a strong role to play in treating men as well. Risk factors for men such as testosterone deficiency can affect weight distribution and bone mass as well as cardiac, obesity, and diabetes risk profiles.