Coronary artery disease takes years to develop and in the case of women, it takes almost a decade longer to show up. By then, a woman is often concerned with other health problems such as cancer, arthritis or osteoporosis. These diseases tend to draw attention away from the steadily ticking time bomb of heart disease. Coronary heart disease is the number one killer of American women. In 1995 over 96,000 females died from stroke, accounting for 61 percent of all stroke deaths.
Women have lower chances of surviving heart attacks than men.
Studies show that 44 percent of women die within a year compared with 27 percent of men. At older ages, women who have heart attacks are twice as likely as men are to die from them within a few weeks. Many women before menopause seem to be protected from the risk of heart attack and stroke, perhaps by the hormone estrogen, which raises HDL, or good cholesterol level while lowering LDL cholesterol. But as women approach menopause, at about age 55, things change and the average women s blood cholesterol begins to rise. After menopause, women s risk of heart attack and stroke continues to rise with age.