This post was authored by Nanette K. Wenger, MD, MACC, professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, director of the cardiac clinics at Grady Memorial Hospital and a member of ACC’s Women in Cardiology (WIC) Section.

As we celebrate the history of women in cardiology for women’s history month, it is important to emphasize women’s heart health as a part of that story. Although heart disease is the number one killer of women, cardiovascular disease was really thought of as a man’s disease until the last few decades.

Differing risk factors and symptoms for women weren’t really understood or recognized. Women who came in to the emergency room with chest pains were told they had a stomach problem or that they were imagining the pain and had emotional problems so they were sent home. Gender differences in heart disease remained unexplored and unacknowledged as women were underrepresented in or excluded from clinical trials and research and there were no guidelines to inform clinical decision-making.

Since then we’ve come a long way. In 1999, the American Heart Association published the first gender-specific clinical recommendations for heart disease in women which have helped outcomes improve. There are statements on prevention in women, guidelines for early recognition and specific education for the treatment of women. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration now mandates that women must be represented in clinical drug studies, including device trials. We don’t yet have universal adoption of guidelines-based treatment and prevention for women’s heart health as we do for men’s, but the field is evolving and outcomes are improving slowly.

Throughout my career, the advocacy for women’s health has been my passion. When I first started practice and saw women patients, there were no data I could lean on to treat women. By raising questions and looking at the gender-based differences I essentially became the burr under the saddle to all involved groups. Back in the 90s I presented a television series on heart disease in women and it was relegated to the 11:00 p.m. timeslot. Now it is front and center.

Looking back over my career, it gives me a great deal of satisfaction to see how far we’ve come and how other people have signed on to my vision and done what’s necessary to bring women’s heart health to the forefront. In the future, we should not approach this as solely a medical problem, but a problem of education, socioeconomic status, access to care, public policy and legislation. We can’t just treat this in the office, we must look beyond the clinical and continue to broaden public awareness and improve outcomes.

This post is part of a series on the ACC in Touch Blog from members of ACC’s WIC Section for Women’s History Month. Join the conversations on Twitter with the hashtag #ACCWIC.

ACC’s WIC Section is working to provide resources for women to help them steer successful careers and enjoy work/life balance. Efforts have included the professional life survey conducted every 10 years, the annual WIC Leadership Workshop and a new pregnancy survey. Learn more about the Section at ACC.org/WIC.

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