Not Just a Man's Disease The facts, however, tell quite a different story. One in 9 women between the ages of 45 and 64 has some form of cardiovascular disease, ranging from coronary artery disease to stroke or renal vascular disease. By the time a woman reaches 65, she has a 1 in 3 chance of developing cardiovascular disease. And a number of studies show that African American women are at even greater risk than these averages. Heart disease, in its various forms, is the leading killer of American women.
Heart disease kills more women each year than cancer, accidents, and diabetes combined.
All forms of cardiovascular disease kill nearly 500,000 American women a year. Stroke alone kills 88,000. Myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack, kills 244,000 women a year. Forty percent of women with heart disease will eventually die of it. The reason that so much more attention has been focused on men is that they are much more likely to be stricken with heart disease in their prime middle years, whereas women tend to get it 10 to 20 years later.