The publication of England’s renewed Women’s Health Strategy is a timely moment to confront a stubborn truth: too many women’s health issues are still dismissed, or poorly treated.
A core part of the strategy refresh is about listening to women, whether they’re describing symptoms or sharing feedback about their experiences of care, and driving the practical changes needed to ensure they get the right treatment at the right time.
Listening to women and taking their concerns seriously is essential. As is better research evidence about women’s bodies, better training for clinicians on how health problems present and are best treated in women, and maximising every opportunity to ask women questions about their wider health and refer the services they need quickly.
Listening is no soft issue
Cardiovascular disease is one of the UK’s biggest killers of women, yet too many women are still dismissed and told their symptoms are simply stress and anxiety.
Women are 50% more likely than men to get the wrong diagnosis when they’re having a heart attack. They’re more likely to die as a result because they don’t get the care they need.
In fact, BHF-funded research suggested more than 8,000 women’s lives were needlessly lost between 2002 and 2013 because they didn’t receive the same standard of care as men after a heart attack.
Listening better is not a soft issue. It’s lifesaving.
Increasing women in research
Part of the problem is that women have been chronically under-represented in research for decades. Our knowledge of how heart disease presents and is best treated is largely driven by research ata about men. But women’s bodies are different.
We are actively addressing this knowledge gap by investing in major research programmes specifically looking at women’s heart health.
Through our role in the Global Cardiovascular Research Funders Forum, we’ve contributed to a $10m study exploring how changes during perimenopause alter arteries and increase women’s risk of heart disease, as well as crucially looking at how we can then diagnose and treat women sooner.
And I’m particularly proud of our contribution to VISIBLE, a $55m global research programme, led by Wellcome Leap with Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal. This landmark programme aims to transform diagnosis and treatment for women with a type of microvascular disease – problems in the smallest arteries in the heart - that disproportionately affects women and is often missed by current tests.
These studies, and others, should provide healthcare professionals with more accurate insights on what to look out for in terms of women’s heart risk, and the best ways to treat them.
Lifetime joined-up approach
The strategy also reflects the importance of intervening at key points across a woman’s life to maximise opportunities to identify heart health issues and refer treatment earlier. For example, reproductive health conditions like polycystic ovaries, preeclampsia and gestational diabetes can double a woman’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease later in life.
But currently, too many women are unaware these conditions increase their future risk and there are low referral rates to dedicated cardiac services.
Like so many good ideas, improving outcomes will depend on practical delivery. The health service is already going through big changes, and these further improvements need to be joined up.
Delivering theses new ambitions will depend on the success of the three shifts already outlined in the 10 Year Health Plan - sickness to prevention, analogue to digital, and hospital to community - so it’s good to see the strategy align with these existing goals.
As the strategy rightly highlights, the UK Government’s forthcoming cardiovascular disease Modern Service Framework is an important opportunity to map out very practically how changes in the refreshed women’s health strategy will be delivered for cardiac care.
This will give clarity and direction to the health system and bring us a crucial step closer to keeping people’s hearts healthier for longer.
UK approach
While this week’s announcement relates to England, women across the UK deserve the same ambition.
Northern Ireland is the only UK nation without a dedicated women’s health plan, despite a Women’s Health Action Plan being promised.
This risks leaving women without the joined-up support to spot and manage cardiovascular risk earlier, and needs to be addressed quickly.
Correcting bias, not shifting resource
A final important point is that improving women’s health is not a zero-sum game traded against men’s health. This is about correcting biases, not shifting resources away from men.
Cardiovascular disease is also a leading killer of UK men and deserves our attention. That’s why BHF is actively supporting the implementation of the Government’s Men’s Health Strategy.
The goal is a more informed, responsive health system. We all stand to gain from a health system that understands differences in disease for everyone.
Read about women and heart disease
