Dr. Tara Narula

And then we think about the after period or post-menopause, which we know post-menopausal women or over the age of 55, that is a time of increased risk for women.

We start to see cholesterol levels rise.

I have women tell me all the time, my cholesterol levels were fine and now all of a sudden they're going up or blood pressure go up.

So we really need to think about the stages of a woman's life.

And to answer your question, it's never too early to start getting screened or seeing a cardiologist because they're going to look at things in a very different way

than your primary doctor might or your OBGYN might.

And we see heart disease on autopsies in people as young as 18, 17.

You see fatty streaks in the arteries.

So again, this process is starting at such a young age.

And, you know, family history is another one, right?

So lots of times you can be the perfect picture of health, but just having, as you have, a family history of someone, a parent who had an early heart attack or stroke, that can be enough.

Either one.

So if a female had a heart attack or stroke before the age of 65 or a male before the age of 55, that is a check in the box of a genetic predisposition to cardiovascular disease.

So that's something that people, they don't ask their family, what happened to you or did you have high blood pressure?

We need to be asking our family members because that's predictive.

But

I think the biggest thing is that we have a lot of tools these days that we can use to pick up on underlying cardiovascular disease that women or men may not know they have.

By and large, the most common symptom, both for men and women, will be chest discomfort.

And when we say that, it's kind of this big bucket term, but a lot of people will describe it as a pressure, tightness, squeezing, heaviness, burning.

Women will sometimes say, my bra feels too tight, like I want to take it off.