close

Women can have it all.

Even heart disease.

In partnership with WomenHeart, whose mission is to improve the health and quality of life for women living with or at risk of heart disease, and to advocate for their benefit. See how >

The Facts About Women's Heart Disease

Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the U.S., killing 400,000 women each year.

Women are 50% more likely to be given a wrong diagnosis after a heart attack.

Women's hearts are two-thirds the size of men's.

In nearly half of all heart attacks among women, typical male symptoms are not present.

We Are fighting For Change

Through equal funding for research, treatment and prevention, we are fighting for:

  • 1

    Universal knowledge of women's heart attack symptoms through community and physician education

  • 2

    Bold, breakthrough cardiovascular research

  • 3

    Changing behaviors that elevate risks for heart disease

5signs you
should know

Jaw Pain

Shortness of Breath

Backache

Extreme Fatigue

Nausea and Indigestion

Women's symptoms of heart attack often are different and more subtle than men's.

Learn all the signs

“Many women go to the hospital with chest pain but they often aren’t tested for a heart attack because doctors felt they were low-risk. And they are considered low-risk because their heart disease symptoms are different than the symptoms men experience.”

Dr. Noel Bairey Merz, WHA Scientific Advisor, Director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

“Most of what we know about heart disease has come from research done on men, designed for men. And this has greatly benefited men, but women have not fared as well.”

Dr. Holly Andersen, WHA Medical Advisor, and director of education and outreach at the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute and attending cardiologist at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center

“The time is ripe for a great leap forward on behalf of gender equity… Everywhere you turn today, women – and their allies – are stepping up and speaking out.”

Barbra Streisand, Co-Founder of the Women’s Heart Alliance