Health & Healthcare

Women and Heart Disease: Those Most at Risk Are Most in Need of the Conversation

“Letter to My Mother” campaign from Medtronic encourages women to have conversations about the risks of heart disease
May 13, 2025 8:00 AM ET
Campaign: Accelerating access to healthcare technology
Letter to my mother campaign

The United States is at a tipping point when it comes to women’s health, and heart health remains the deadliest concern of all.1 For more than 100 years, cardiovascular disease has been the leading cause of death in women, accounting for about one out of every three female deaths (more than all cancers combined).2,3 Medtronic is working relentlessly to ensure women receive personalized, evidence-based solutions, tailored to them.

This May, during Women’s Health Month and Mother’s Day, we encourage people to make the pledge to talk to their mother or the women in their lives about heart health. From high blood pressure and irregular heartbeats to common conditions like heart valve failure (severe aortic stenosis)† and coronary artery disease, it’s important today and every day to not skip a beat — learn your family history, risk factors, and the signs and symptoms of heart disease.

Receiving the right advice at the right time can impact your life, and in the case of heart disease, may help save your life.1 One letter can help start a new conversation about what it means to take care of your own heart health. What would you say to your mother or a woman in your life if you knew it could change the course of her life?

A new Medtronic-sponsored survey of women ages 30–50 sheds light on a gap in awareness and discussion around heart health, despite more than 60 million women in the United States living with some form of heart disease.‡ Women discuss sensitive topics like “the birds and the bees” and body image — but heart health is left out of conversations at the doctor’s office and dinner table.

  • 60% of women find it hard to make their own health a priority.
  • 30% of women have not talked with a healthcare provider about their heart health.
  • 44% of women have talked about their heart risk with their family.

Heart disease can present differently in women, with symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, chest discomfort, or pain in the neck, jaw, or throat.4,5Learn more and talk to your doctor about solutions for heart disease and high blood pressure (hypertension).

Learn more and take the pledge to talk to your mother or the women in your life about heart health today.

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‡ Medtronic engaged Wakefield Research to conduct a nationally representative survey to gain insights into consumer perceptions and awareness of heart disease in women, targeted to the “daughters” that are sandwiched between taking care of their health, their children, and parents. The survey was deployed among 1,000 U.S. women, ages 30 to 50, with a living mother and a living child, between March 13 and March 17, 2025, using an email invitation and an online survey. Data has been weighted.

  1. American Heart Association. More than half of U.S. adults don’t know heart disease is the leading cause of death, despite 100-year reign. Updated January 24, 2024. Accessed April 17, 2025.
  2. American Heart Association. Facts | Go Red for Women. Accessed April 23, 2025.
  3. Garcia M, Mulvagh SL, Merz CNB, Buring JE, Manson JE. Cardiovascular disease in women: clinical perspectives. Circ Res. 2016;118(8):1273–1293. doi:10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.116.307547.
  4. American Heart Association. Changing the way we view women’s heart attack symptoms. Updated March 6, 2020. Accessed April 17, 2025.
  5. Iribarren AC, AlBadri A, Wei J, et al. Sex differences in aortic stenosis: Identification of knowledge gaps for sex specific personalized medicine. Am Heart J Plus. 2022;21:100197. doi:10.1016/j.ahjo.2022.100197.