Heart disease research not meeting the needs of women, researchers say

A persistent failure to examine and report gender-specific heart disease has caused countless New Zealand women to go untreated by the health system, a new study has found.

Statistics from the Heart Foundation show more than 55 Kiwi women die of heart disease every month, more than any other cause of death.

Despite this, the health system consistently treats heart disease as a "male condition," said University of Auckland physiology fellow Dr Carol Bussey.

"Often we really think about men being impacted by heart disease and women being impacted by, say, breast cancer," Bussey said.

She explained this has led the health system to focus on male symptoms when women can present differently.

"Women often present with different heart conditions and different symptoms and are often missed because we are looking at things from a male lens," she said.

Bussey is one of the lead authors behind a recently published review of New Zealand heart disease research which looked at past New Zealand cardiovascular health studies to better understand why this disparity exists.

Published in the New Zealand Medical Journal (NZMJ), the study analysed 25 years' of New Zealand cardiovascular research to make sense of what is currently known of women's heart health in the hopes of better understanding why women are being underserved.

The paper revealed there was no lack of relevant research, but a "persistent failure to adequately examine, report and analyse gender-specific data", leaving healthcare providers without the adequate data needed for gender-responsive care.

Bussey said the lack of women in cardiovascular research is a contributing factor to the gender data gap.

"Because so much of the healthcare provided is based on research done in men, it just doesn't meet the need of women," Bussey said.

A 2025 workforce survey found three quarters of the 154 cardiologists employed by Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora - were men, despite women making up half of all doctors employed by the organisation.

Bussey said the failure to properly scrutinise gender-specific data was not entirely intentional, but the predominantly male workforce "just didn't think to ask the questions pertaining to women".

Another of the study's authors, University of Canterbury nursing lecturer Dr Kylie Short, said they found three quarters of the articles researchers looked at did not treat gender as anything other than a superficial datapoint.

She said researchers need to look at heart disease through a "more holistic lens" if the system is to properly meet the needs of women.