Women's hearts beat differently: when ignorance becomes a health risk

Women's health is still too little attention in medicine - gender -specific research is essential. Women's bodies work differently than male bodies, but the male body was long considered a general benchmark.

To date, crucial gender -specific data is missing in many areas. Among other things, this is due to the fact that women in medicine have long been seen as "little men". It is all the more important that research finally focuses more on the specific needs and risks of women.

Medicines were mostly tested on men, and symptoms and diagnoses also oriented themselves on the male body. These findings were then transferred one to one to women. A mistake, since women's body and male body are not only anatomical, but also immunologically, genetic and hormonally different.

The fact that the specific differences between men and women were often ignored has far -reaching consequences for diagnosis, treatment and medication development. To this day, women in medicine are often used or misused.

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Doctors raise the alarm for women's heart health

The sometimes fatal consequences are particularly evident in the subject of heart attack. It is still often said that women have atypical symptoms. But that's not true: women have no atypical symptoms-they simply have no men's symptoms, but just women's symptoms. This is exactly the problem, because these are often not recognized correctly, which delays the diagnosis and difficult.

All of this can be life -threatening for women. In Germany, around 20,000 women die from a heart attack every year - often because the diagnosis is made too late. In fact, it is almost twice as many women as men.

"The differences between male and female hearts are great - but medicine usually thinks too male", explains Prof. Dr. med. Sandra Eifert, one of the few cardiac surgery in Germany. For example, women often show symptoms that are not always recognized as a heart attack immediately. As a result, you do not get the same fast and targeted care in an emergency. You also need preventive and therapy tailored to your specific risks.

“The symptoms of cardiovascular diseases are expressed in women as back or neck pain or in the abdomen, their wrong classification harms and costs life. Women are treated dramatically worse ”,says Prof. Dr. med. Michael Becker, chief physician Clinic for Cardiology, Nephrology and Internist Intensive Care Medicine and Head of the Frauenherz Center at the Rhein-Maas Klinikum."You less often get the medication recommended in international guidelines, get more and less important and later with more attention, and then with more complications."

Unfortunately, there is a lack of many doctors as well as patients of attention and awareness of such risks. There are also major clinical studies on women's heart health in terms of medication, dosage and treatment methods.

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#Gored Day: Close the gender Health Gap

is called gender in medical research and care. In order to close this gap and to bring the grievances in women's health more to the awareness of society and politics, they haveHealthCare Spots EV(HCF)-a business network of managers in the healthcare industry-together with the heart brain alliance and other actors of the healthcare system#GoRed Daylaunched, which will take place for the third time in 2025.

The action is planned onFebruary 7, 2025, as on the nationwide day of women's heart health. The goal: strengthening medical, political and public awareness of heart diseases in women.

An important political demand for the initiators of the Gored Day: The gender-specific differences must be integrated into the training and further education of doctors. So that women's health finally gets the importance that she needs so urgently.

„Our thematic focus is on prevention and precaution, recognizing female
Symptoms and promotion of social sensitivity ", says Dr. Leonie Uhl, co-
Initiator of #Gored, spokeswoman for the HCF advisory board health promotion and director
Government Affairs, Amgen GmbH.“As a network of leading women in the healthcare industry, we want to improve the health system and establish a gender -sensitive view. So that patient care does justice to. "

Be part of the #Gored Day 2025!

Do you also want to provide more awareness? Then it is part of the #gored Day 2025. On February 7, 2025, there is something red, post a selfie with the hashtags #frauenherzenschländers and #GORED - and help to strengthen awareness of women's heart health!

Last year the campaign day already reached more than 21 million people. Pharmacies, the German Fire Brigade Association and many companies are also on board to educate women about risk factors, warning signals and prevention.

You can find out more about #goredhere.

You can also read more about the topic here:Heart health in women: Why medicine has to treat us completely differently