Our death rates from coronary artery disease have declined and, combined with increased life expectancy, women are living longer. The good news is that women develop heart disease later than men, and this time can be used to modify risk factors and hopefully improve the outcome. I see one of your specialties is cardiac rehabilitation. Cardiac rehab in this day and age should include an exercise program and assessment of cardiovascular risk factors. This is a question that has caused a lot of confusion.
Women are actually equally likely to get heart disease as men.
The problem occurs when at a specific age, there are fewer women than men who will get heart disease, but the overall numbers are equal. If we look at people who are 55, there will be more men who will have a heart attack, but what happens at 85 is that most of the men are no longer alive anymore, and women make up the larger population of people who have heart attacks. We look at all these risk factors and try to modify them and prevent development of cardiovascular disease. In people who have inherited very high cholesterol, it often takes multiple drugs as well as diet to lower the bad cholesterol level. The drugs can come from several different classes.