rates of deaths involving opioids specifically heroin and synthetic opioids the latter probably driven primarily by illicit fentanyl have increased considerably across the united states available at available at wwwcdcgovnchshealth policymortalityhtm while heroin use has remained high among men the rate of increase of heroin use among women has been higher than among men between and the average rate of pastyear heroin use was per men and per women whereas between and the rate of pastyear heroin use increased to per men and per women as the progression to addiction to opioids may be accelerated among women the development of addiction among women following treatment with opioids for a legitimate medical condition iatrogenic addiction may explain the comparable levels of misuse of prescription opioids among the sexes in per cent of women compared with per cent of men had misused prescription opioids in the previous year