Dr. Tara Narula

But some of it is just awareness.

And so campaigns like the Go Red for Women campaign through the AHA campaign.

have done a lot to open women's eyes to the fact that we need to understand our risk factors.

We need to recognize symptoms and know what that feels like in terms of when we're talking about the heart.

And we need to prioritize getting screened and our heart health in the same way that we get our mammograms and our colonoscopies and our pap smears.

We should be getting screened for heart disease.

And it's just not something women think about.

It should be.

We talk about the fact that we're probably reaching people way too late.

So we're seeing them when they're in their 40s and 50s and they already have cardiovascular disease.

And so we need to be starting much, much earlier.

And when you look at women, for example, we talk about the arc of a woman's life and all the risk factors and signs that might present at different stages.

So for example, getting early periods before the age of 11 is a risk factor for women for future cardiovascular disease, which not many women know about.

When you're in your 20s and 30s, we think about things like polycystic ovarian syndrome or migraines or inflammatory bowel disease or autoimmune conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

Breast cancer, if you've been treated for breast cancer with chemotherapy and radiation, all these things can predict the fact that you may be at increased risk.

And then pregnancy.

Pregnancy is a real big window into your risk.

So women who've had

preeclampsia, eclampsia, gestational diabetes, early babies, small babies for gestational age or miscarriage, all those things are markers of increased risk.

And unfortunately, so many women leave the hospital after delivering and are never told you should see a cardiologist.