Despite being the leading cause of mortality among women, cardiovascular disease remains underrecognized and undertreated due to sex-related differences in clinical presentation, risk factors, and healthcare delivery. Women are often excluded from clinical trials, undergo fewer diagnostic evaluations, and are less likely to receive guideline-directed therapies. Additionally, female-specific risk factors, such as pregnancy-related disorders, early menopause, and autoimmune diseases, are frequently overlooked. Addressing these disparities through sex-specific risk assessment, increased clinician awareness, and inclusion of women in research is imperative to optimize prevention and treatment strategies and reduce cardiovascular disease-related morbidity and mortality in women.
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Bridging the Gender Gap: The Urgent Need for Cardiovascular Data on Women Jyotsna Maddury, Achukatla Kumar Indian Journal of Cardiovascular Disease in Women.2025; 10: 165. CrossRef
Background Exercise and estrogen play key roles in preventing diabetes and obesity. Women’s risk of diabetes could increase due to the loss of the protective effect of estrogen after menopause. Therefore, we investigated the relationship of the intensity and frequency of exercise with diabetes risk in Korean women.
Methods Hazard ratios (HRs) for the development of diabetes were analyzed in 926,807 premenopausal and 1,188,346 postmenopausal women without diabetes over the age of 40 who underwent the Korean National Health Examination in 2009 and were followed up until 2018. The number of days of physical activity according to exercise intensity and metabolic equivalent of task-minutes per week (MET-min/wk) were calculated.
Results In total, 38,096 premenopausal (4.1%) and 120,605 postmenopausal (10.2%) women were newly diagnosed with diabetes. Regardless of menopausal history, the risk of diabetes was significantly lower in groups with higher MET-min/wk than in sedentary participants (0 MET-min/wk, reference), although this effect disappeared in postmenopausal women with the highest level of MET-min/wk (MET-min/wk ≥1,500) after adjusting for all variables (HR, 1.0; 95% confidence interval, 0.97–1.02). Participants who exercised for more than 1 day per week had a significantly lower risk of diabetes, regardless of the intensity. However, this benefit was lost in women with near-daily exercise (≥6 days/wk).
Conclusions Exercise was effective in preventing diabetes in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. A moderate amount of exercise should be actively encouraged to lower the risk of diabetes in women, especially after menopause, while simultaneously considering the insignificant benefits of excessive exercise.
Increasing numbers of women are delivering their first child at a later age. First pregnancy at a later age is, per se, a high-risk pregnancy. Pregnancy after 35 years is traditionally considered a late maternal age. The risks of obstetric complications including fetal and maternal complications are increased. Defective placenta syndrome, including hypertensive disorders, preterm birth, and intrauterine growth retardation, shares similar pathophysiologic mechanisms with endothelial dysfunction, although their clinical presentations differ. Recent medical advances have improved the medical performance of pregnancy-related cardiovascular disease (CVD). Recent evidence has shown that women with underlying defective placental syndrome or other pregnancy-related complications have an increased risk of unfavorable cardiovascular outcomes in later life. An increasing number of women delivering their first child at a later age have epidemiological characteristics that differ from those reported previously and for which data are limited data regarding the cardiovascular prognosis. Therefore, increased attention to public health and CVD prevention is required for women with complicated pregnancies.