Lipids are the fats that circulate in blood. The most commonly used medications are the statins. The first is that treatment is less commonly provided to women, and second, that treatment in general is suboptimal. Although the guidelines are clear, most patients are not achieving the recommended LDL cholesterol targets. Cost may be an issue, and also the perceived side effects, although these medications really have very few side effects.
Side effects are actually quite rare.
The issue this study brought to light is that women are less likely than men to be taking this therapy. I'm wondering if some of it has to do with the fact that cholesterol levels tend to rise after menopause, and maybe that's not being monitored in postmenopausal women. It's a topic that needs further research as to what the reasons are so that we can make sure that women get the treatment they need. We tend to think of heart disease as the typical chest pain that men have, and women can have that, too, but they also have atypical symptoms. Even though there are clear goals for controlling high blood pressure, only about 27 percent of the people in the United States with high blood pressure have reached the proper levels.