Updated January, 2006
Heart failure is a major cause of death and disability in women. Most cases of heart failure develop as a result of coronary artery disease or longstanding hypertension, and in most cases the causes, symptoms, and treatment of heart failure are similar in women and in men. You can read here about the causes, evaluation and treatment of heart failure. It is particularly important for women with heart failure to know this information, because the majority of women are NOT receiving optimal therapy for heart failure from their doctors, and that inadequate therapy leads directly to increased mortality and disability.
In addition, some aspects of heart failure are different in women than in men. These differences include:
Diastolic heart failuretends to be much more common in women than in men, and accounts for at least half the cases of heart failure in women. This condition is often missed by unalert physicians, and consequently women with diastolic heart failure often do not receive optimal therapy.
Women can develop an acute condition called stress cardiomyopathy, or "broken-heart syndrome." While this condition appears rare, it does seem to affect women far more often than men.
It is now demonstrated fairly convincingly that women tend to minimize their symptoms of heart failure, so that doctors are unaware of just how sick and disabled they actually are. This minimization of symptoms is one of the factors that leads to inadequate treatment in women with heart failure.
Finally, evidence exists that treatment with digoxin may be dangerous in women. Digoxin is still one of the more common medications used in treating heart failure, but in many women its potential benefits may be outweighed by the risks.
