Cardiovascular Disease in Women: Executive Summary of the Expert Panel Statement of Women in Cardiology of the Hellenic Cardiological Society

The perception that women represent a low risk population for cardiovascular (CV) disease (CVD) needs to be reconsidered. Starting from risk factors, women are more likely to be susceptible to unhealthy behaviors and risk factors that have different impact on CV morbidity and mortality compared to men. Despite the large body of evidence as regards the effect of lifestyle factors on the CVD onset, the gender-specific effect of traditional and non-traditional risk factors on the prognosis of patients with already established CVD has not been well investigated and understood. Furthermore, CVD in women is often misdiagnosed, underestimated and undertreated. Women also experience hormonal changes from adolescence till elder life that affect CV physiology. Unfortunately, in most of the clinical trials women are under-represented, leading to limited knowledge of CV and systemic impact effects of several treatment modalities on women's health. Thus, in this consensus a group of female Cardiologists from the Hellenic Society of Cardiology present the special features of CVD in women: the different needs in primary and secondary prevention, as well as therapeutic strategies, that may be implemented in daily clinical practice in order to eliminate underestimation and undertreatment of CVD in female population.