Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. Cardiovascular diseases are more in females than males because of a lack of recognition of the symptoms of heart diseases. Women can develop symptoms that are delicate and harder to identify as a heart attack, mostly if the physician is finding the usual heart attack symptoms. It has been shown that women remain unaware of the risk, symptoms, and treatment of heart disease. Women ignore early warning signs and don’t recognize the risks and end up even at greater risk of developing heart disease. The risk of heart disease increases due to certain diseases that only affect women. These contain high blood pressure that develops in the course of pregnancy, diabetes, endometriosis, and polycystic ovary disease. Women have poorer mental and physical health as compared to men lead. These include depression, heart failure, obesity, diabetes, renal failure, and a history of stroke.
There are several socio-cultural beliefs that contribute to the increased risk of heart attacks in women. Women have a larger number of risks of heart disease after menopause. During menopause, the decreasing level of the female hormone estrogen
which starts around the age of fifty plays a major role in the risk of heart disease. The risk of heart disease can be increased while the removal of the natural estrogen that occurs in menopause leads to greater bad cholesterol and lesser good cholesterol.
Another socio-cultural belief is smoking. It is a great risk aspect for cardiovascular disease. Cigarette smoking joint with the usage of birth control capsules significantly upsurges the risk of heart attack or stroke. Hypertension or high blood pressure is another social-cultural disease. It can make the heart work harder if left untreated, and speed up, which would harden the arteries and raise heart attack, kidney failure, or stroke. However, high blood pressure triggered by pregnancy typically goes away.
