In This Section
Your OBGYN Can Help Protect Your Heart
Women who are at child bearing age depend a lot on their OBGYN. They see them for almost all their medical issues and rely on their advice and expertise. Now that same gynecologist is helping women stay heart healthy. Your OBGYN can help protect your heart.
Heart Disease and Your Health
Are you aware that heart disease is the greatest killer of women even more than all the cancers combined? If that is surprising to you, you’re not alone. Many young women don’t realize how important their heart health is until they get older. It is never too early to be aware of your individual risk factors. Of course, there are many for which you have no control, like if they are genetic or run in families.
Empowering knowledge is being aware of the risk factors you can control. Rely on your gynecologist to discover what those are and what you can do about them.
It Starts With Your Annual Well-Woman Visit
It is recommended that women of childbearing age should have annual well-woman visits with their gynecologist. The purpose is to evaluate a number of specific health issues like reproductive health, assess disease risk factors, and to promote disease prevention practices.
This visit is the perfect time for your OBGYN to do a heart health screening. This includes:
- Taking a thorough family history
- Screening for heart disease risk factors like smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, and abnormal cholesterol levels
- Counseling women to improve their diet, increase physical activity, and make necessary lifestyle changes
All these actions can help to reduce risk factors for heart disease since it is estimated that 90% of women have at least one risk factor for heart disease.
Women-Specific Heart Disease Risk Factors
Many early indicators of heart disease are linked to pregnancy complications and hormonal changes.
Preeclampsia is a dangerous complication of high blood pressure, and is only one example of a heart disease risk factor specific to women.
Gestational diabetes, low birth weight, and premature delivery have also been identified with an increased cardiovascular health risk.
Conditions that affect women’s hormone levels can also be linked to cardiovascular health like PCOS and menopause.
Rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disorder, occurs more in women, and breast cancer treatments can damage the heart.
Talk With Your OBGYN
Have a discussion with Associates in Womens Health about your individual risk factors and what you can do to mitigate them. If you and your OBGYN discover risk factors early, it’s your best defense for preventing heart disease later on.
Contact Associates in Womens Health at (402) 697-7200 to schedule your next well-woman appointment in Omaha.