[Gender bias in diagnosis and treatment of women with coronary heart disease. A review]

Abstract

Recent studies collected via Medline and Psychlit suggest that coronary heart disease is treated less aggressively in women than in men. Women have significantly less access to major diagnostic and therapeutic procedures such as thrombolytic therapy, coronary angiography, coronary angioplasty, and coronary artery bypass surgery. This holds for women with suspected coronary heart disease as well as for women with coronary heart disease documented by myocardial infarction or coronary angiography. Possible reasons for gender bias in the management of coronary heart disease are: 1) physicians may underestimate the prevalence of coronary heart disease in women, 2) because of the higher prevalence in men, physicians may consider coronary heart disease as more serious in men, 3) a general lack of knowledge concerning coronary heart disease in women, 4) physicians' perceptions of gender-specific differences in risks and benefits of certain procedures, 5) gender stereotypes of the physician, 6) presentation style of the patient.