Long Live Women: The Women in Your Workforce Deserve Better Heart Care

Women are the heart of your workforce.

They mentor, support, and often carry the weight of caregiving for both their parents and children — all without skipping a beat. And while they’re busy showing up for everyone else, many are living with serious heart health risks like hypertension, high cholesterol, and heart disease that often go undetected until it’s too late.

Despite being the leading cause of death for women, heart disease has long been treated as a one-size-fits-all issue, overlooking how differently it shows up in women’s bodies than men’s.

That disconnect is driving losses. In women’s health outcomes, in productivity, and in preventable healthcare spending.

And if you’re in a position to support women in the workplace — as a benefit leader, HR executive, or organizational decision-maker — you have the power to help improve the human and financial health of your organization.

The Leading Cause of Death Not Everyone Knows About

Heart disease kills more women each year than all cancers combined. But only 56 percent of women know it’s their greatest health threat.

One reason? Key risk factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol often have no symptoms. And when women experience heart attacks, their symptoms don’t always look and feel the way people expect them to.

Instead of the dramatic chest pain we’ve come to associate with heart attacks in movies and television, women’s symptoms are more subtle: fatigue, nausea, shortness of breath, jaw or back pain.

Too often, those symptoms are dismissed by both patients and providers.  By the time women get care, they’re more likely to be misdiagnosed and less likely to receive the follow-up support or medications that could improve the quality of their lives.

This isn’t just a clinical gap. It’s a cultural one, shaped by decades of low awareness and clinical research that has predominantly focused on male patients.

The Cost of Doing Nothing

These gender gaps in care have real consequences not just for the women on your teams, but also for your business.

• Cardiovascular disease costs U.S. employers an average of $9,300 per employee per year
• Workers with heart disease or risk factors miss an estimated 80 work hours annually
• The total projected cost of heart disease is expected to hit $1.1 trillion annually by 2035

The good news? An estimated 80 percent of heart attacks and strokes are preventable.

That’s what makes better heart care such a clear opportunity for employer-led change. The right benefits and tools don’t just support individual employees. They can help reduce avoidable emergency care, increase engagement, and improve outcomes across your organization.

Start With the Women’s Heart Health Toolkit

To help benefit leaders take action this Women’s Health Month, Hello Heart has created a free, downloadable Women’s Heart Health Toolkit designed to drive awareness, spark conversation, and provide practical ways to support the women in your workforce.

Inside the toolkit, you’ll find:

• Infographic: Busting 5 Myths About Women & Heart Disease: A visual, shareable breakdown of what every woman needs to know
• Tip Sheets for Pregnancy and Menopause: Practical, evidence-backed resources to help women navigate two of the most high-risk moments in their lives
• Social Media Kit: Pre-written posts to spread the word across your internal and external channels
• Employer Guide: A bold, insight-packed resource for benefits leaders ready to build more equitable, effective heart health programs

Whether you’re just starting to explore women’s health strategies or looking to expand your existing wellness programs, this toolkit is a simple and effective way to start the conversation and help the women in your workforce prioritize what matters most: their hearts.

Download the Toolkit

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