The incidence of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease is less in pre-menopausal women than in men of comparable age.
Gender influences endothelial function and gene expression.
In several research models, endothelium-mediated vasodilation is more pronounced in the arteries of females than in the arteries of males. Estrogen also increases endothelium-mediated vasodilation in experimental models of arteries involving males and females. Gender also appears to influence exercise training-induced adaptations of arterial vasomotor reactivity. These gender-dependent effects are the result of altered phenotype in both VSM and endothelium. Current evidence indicates that gender interacts with training-induced vascular adaptations differently depending on species, vasoactive agonists , and anatomic origin of arteries.