Audience

Heart disease is every woman's issue. Approximately 42.7 million U.S. women – that's one in three – have some form of it. One in four of us die from heart disease.

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women age 65 and older.
• The second leading cause of death among women age 45 to 64.
• The third leading cause of death among women age 25 to 44.

Women and men are impacted by heart disease different ways. That's why Sister to Sister focuses exclusively on women.

• Though heart disease is the leading killer of both sexes, each year a significantly larger number of women than men die from it.
• Eighty percent of midlife women (age 40 to 60) have one or more heart disease risk factors.
• Women are far less likely than men to be tested or treated for heart disease in a timely manner.
• Women have more heart attacks that go unrecognized, more repeat heart attacks, and greater risk of stroke after heart attack.
• Women don't know that heart attack symptoms sometimes differ between the sexes. Women are more likely than men to feel shortness of breath, fatigue, abdominal pressure, nausea or heartburn, or jaw, neck, back, or upper shoulder pain.
• Twenty-three percent of women age 40 and older who have an initial heart attack die within a year, compared to 18 percent of men.