We’ve read the horror stories, or experienced it ourselves. The stories of women being gaslighted in doctor’s offices. The stories of women with heart attack symptoms being told: Wait your turn. Don’t make a fuss. It’s probably just anxiety.
The facts are stark: Even though heart disease and stroke are the #1 cause of death in American women, research shows that women’s heart disease symptoms are simply not taken as seriously as men’s.
A little inequity everywhere adds up: Women in America die from heart attacks at twice the rate of men. 3
We’re women leaders in healthcare and business, and community leaders who have had enough. We have had enough of watching our friends, family members and colleagues die. We’ve had enough of raising exceptional daughters, knowing that when they visit a doctor’s office one day, they will be likely to be dismissed. Why are our emergency rooms still an experiment in diversity and inclusion? If a planeful of women, and only women, crashed every single day, would we allow that to keep happening?
We are here to create the most urgent conversation on women’s heart health in medicine. We want fewer heart attacks and longer lives for women. We want to close the gender gap—and conversation gap—in healthcare. We want doctors trained to recognize women’s physical symptoms, including extreme fatigue, back and neck pain, stomach discomfort and angina.
The time for being a “patient” patient is over. This moment is hundreds of American medical history years in the making. Will you seize this moment, and sign a national pledge to change women’s healthcare?
Women die of heart attacks at twice the rate of men.4
I stand for increasing funding and research on women’s heart health.
I stand for system-wide changes; I stand for educating healthcare workers about the unique symptoms of women’s heart disease.
I stand for women being in control of their heart health, I stand for providing women with tools for early detection of heart disease.
I stand for creating public awareness programs that educate all Americans on women’s heart disease.
I stand for all women, regardless of economics and race, receiving the same opportunity to live long lives.