Women’s heart and cardiovascular health at work
Heart disease is not only an older man’s issue. Women experience cardiovascular disease across the life course, with sex-specific risks, differences in recognition and treatment, and consequences that can reshape working life.
Cardiovascular disease is a worldwide women’s health issue.
More than one diagnosis. More than one pathway.
Includes heart attack and angina caused by reduced blood flow to the heart.
Conditions affecting blood vessels and blood flow to the brain and body.
Can affect stamina, breathlessness, concentration and ongoing capacity.
SCAD occurs more often in women and can affect people with few traditional risk factors.
Risk can change at different stages of a woman’s life.
Pregnancy and reproductive history
High blood pressure disorders and gestational diabetes during pregnancy can signal higher cardiovascular risk later. This history should remain visible beyond pregnancy care.
Perimenopause and menopause
Risk changes with age and hormonal transition. Symptoms such as fatigue, sleep disruption or palpitations should not automatically be attributed to menopause without appropriate assessment.
Across adulthood
High blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, kidney disease, smoking, physical inactivity and social conditions all matter. First Nations women can require earlier cardiovascular risk assessment.
Women can encounter gaps before, during and after diagnosis.
What may be missed
- Symptoms may be minimised, normalised or attributed to stress.
- Not every cardiac event follows the stereotype of sudden crushing chest pain.
- Pregnancy history and sex-specific conditions may be disconnected from later cardiovascular assessment.
- SCAD can occur without typical risk factors.
What the evidence asks of systems
- Improve awareness without replacing clinical assessment.
- Include sex, gender and life-course risk in research and guidelines.
- Strengthen timely diagnosis, appropriate treatment and rehabilitation access.
- Address geographic, socioeconomic and First Nations inequities.
Work can be affected before a diagnosis, during an event and through recovery.
Symptoms and uncertainty
Breathlessness, chest discomfort, fatigue, palpitations, dizziness or reduced stamina may affect performance and attendance before the cause is known. Women may work through symptoms or fear being seen as unreliable.
Urgent treatment and disruption
Hospital admission, procedures and sudden absence can interrupt work with little warning. Privacy, income and communication decisions may need to be made during a stressful period.
Rehabilitation and sustainable return
Recovery can involve cardiac rehabilitation, medication effects, fatigue, anxiety, appointments and rebuilding confidence. Return to work should reflect clinical advice, job demands and changing capacity.
Support should be safe, practical and reviewed over time.
Respond to function, not stereotypes
Ask what duties, hours, travel or physical demands are affected. Do not assume age, appearance or diagnosis indicates capacity.
Plan the return collaboratively
Consider staged hours, task changes, rest breaks, remote work and time for rehabilitation or appointments, guided by appropriate clinical advice.
Protect privacy and psychological safety
Agree what will be shared, with whom and why. Avoid making the worker repeatedly retell sensitive health information.
Know the emergency response
Workplaces need a clear emergency procedure and workers should not be expected to continue working through possible acute cardiac symptoms.
What Women Working Well is seeking to understand.
Women Working Well exists to investigate the questions that remain unseen or unanswered: what is missing from the evidence, whose experiences are under-represented, and how women’s health, healthcare, working life and life beyond work connect. These heart-health priorities help shape the Global Women and Work Study.
Recognition
How do workplace culture, job insecurity and healthcare dismissal influence how long women continue working with cardiac symptoms?
Return to work
Which adjustments support durable—not merely rapid—return across different diagnoses, occupations and employment arrangements?
Equity
How do geography, income, caring responsibilities, First Nations status, disability and migration experience shape access to care and rehabilitation?