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Editorial
. 2025 Jan-Dec:21:17455057251406947.
doi: 10.1177/17455057251406947. Epub 2025 Dec 16.

From the margins to the center: Transforming cardiovascular care for women

Jeannette M Wade  1 , Edward Kwabena Ameyaw  2 , Zohra S Lassi  3   4   5
Affiliations
Editorial

From the margins to the center: Transforming cardiovascular care for women

Jeannette M Wade et al. Womens Health (Lond). 2025 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death among women worldwide, with significant disparities in prevalence, outcomes, and care. Despite these alarming statistics, research on women's heart health remains underfunded and poorly prioritized, due in part to the historic exclusion of women from clinical trials and biomedical research. This editorial will highlight the scope of CVD in women, explore sex- and gender-specific risk factors such as gestational diabetes, early menopause, and psychosocial stress, and underscore barriers to quality care including implicit bias and structural inequities. It also calls for increased representation of women in clinical trials and medical fields. Policy and funding shifts are urgently needed to encourage sex-specific research and equitable healthcare delivery. This editorial concludes with a call to action for inclusive, interdisciplinary research approaches, that centers women and their unique biological realities. Advancing gender-responsive cardiovascular care will require not only scientific innovation but also institutional accountability and societal commitment to health equity.

Keywords: cardiovascular diseases in women; clinical trial representation; health equity; sex- and gender-based medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

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