Women’s Heart Health
Specialized care to support women’s unique cardiac needs
Your heart health needs are unique. Your care should be, too.
One in three women will die of heart disease, making it the number one killer of women – and we take that statistic seriously. Women face unique challenges when it comes to keeping their hearts healthy, and heart disease symptoms may be different for women than men. Plus, female-specific life events which include hypertension in pregnancy, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and menopause can affect heart health. Other conditions more common in females (like lupus, for example) can also increase your risk for heart disease.
Our Women’s Heart Health team provides expert diagnosis and treatment for a wide range of heart conditions. Whether your condition is simple or complex, we're here to develop a plan that is right for you.
Heart Disease Warning Signs for Women
It’s common for heart disease in women to present differently than it does in men. That means women need to be aware of symptoms specific to them to help identify potential heart disease.
Those symptoms can include:
- Shortness of breath
- Nausea
- Fatigue
- Decreased exercise capacity
- Chest pain/discomfort
- Low back pain
Women's Heart Disease Treatment Plans
Women’s Heart Health at Cone Health was developed to care for women of all ages who are at risk for heart disease or who have been diagnosed with heart disease.
Our providers work with each patient to develop a personalized treatment plan to help her achieve the best health outcome possible. We look at the broad picture, too -- taking into account important transitions in a woman’s life that may impact her overall health as well as other factors to make her care comprehensive and intentionally holistic.
Women’s Heart Health engages all our Cone Health cardiologists, who are each specially trained in the cardiovascular care of the female patient.
We work with the following HeartCare Cardiovascular specialty teams to optimize the care of each woman, and you’ll be placed in the care of the appropriate team based on your heart condition or heart health needs:
As part of your diagnostic and treatment plan, we offer a wide range of cardiac services to better address cardiovascular issues for our patients. Whether a patient has experienced stroke or heart attack symptoms, we quickly can identify and evaluate cardiovascular conditions with our digital scans and ultrasounds.
Women’s Heart Conditions We Treat
Our physicians are specialty trained cardiologists who care for women with a wide range of heart conditions. Whether you’ve been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, are experiencing symptoms of a heart condition or are looking for a second opinion, our team is here to identify and treat both common and uncommon heart conditions in women and oversee your care.
We routinely treat women with:
- Coronary artery disease
- Heart attack – myocardial infarction
- Valvular heart disease
- Palpitations and arrhythmias
- Heart failure
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Family history of heart disease
- Pregnancy related heart disease
- Peripartum cardiomyopathy
- Heart disease resulting from breast cancer treatment
- Spontaneous coronary dissection
- Microvascular dysfunction
We provide care for all women, and take pride in partnering with partner with NC WISEWOMAN to make cardiovascular care available to anyone in our community who needs it.
Education and Community Outreach
The Women’s Heart team devotes time each year to providing information on preventive health measures for our patients and community members through our annual women’s heart health symposium.
We’re also active in our community when it comes to screening and education around heart health. Our health system provides virtual learning courses to support health and wellness, such as smoking cessation and diet education classes.
For women who have diagnosed heart issues, we offer support groups through the Cone Health system. These are available for women of different ages, with different heart conditions and at different life stages. Learn more about our support groups – and why you might be interested in joining one – here.
Because we’re continuing to learn, we participate in research related to women’s heart health. This keeps us at the cutting edge of care for our patients.
