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Review
. 2024 Mar 14;20(2):59-69.
doi: 10.14797/mdcvj.1368. eCollection 2024.

Cardiomyopathies in Women

Cindy M Martin  1
Affiliations
Review

Cardiomyopathies in Women

Cindy M Martin. Methodist Debakey Cardiovasc J. .

Abstract

Heart failure affects over 2.6 million people in the United States. While women have better overall survival rates, they also suffer from higher morbidity as shown by higher rates of hospitalization and worse quality of life. Several anatomical differences in women's hearts affect both systolic and diastolic cardiac physiology. Despite these findings, women are significantly underrepresented in clinical trials, necessitating extrapolation of data from males. Because women have sex-specific etiologies of heart failure and unique manifestations in genetic-related cardiomyopathies, meaningful sex-related differences affect heart failure outcomes as well as access to and outcomes in advanced heart failure therapies in women. This review explores these gender-specific differences and potential solutions to balance care between women and men.

Keywords: cardiovascular disorders of pregnancy; genetic cardiomyopathy; heart disease in women; heart failure; sex-related differences.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author has no competing interests to declare.

Figures

Overview of cardiopathies in women with sex-related differences
Figure 1
An overview of cardiopathies in women and sex-related differences in diagnoses, treatments, and outcomes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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