How can a woman reduce her risk for heart attack and stroke?

During Heart Month this February, you might be thinking of how you can work on improving your heart health. You can use healthy lifestyle changes and medicines to reduce your risk of coronary artery disease, heart attack, and stroke. You can also think about the risks and benefits of hormonal birth control options and hormone therapy for menopause when you are deciding whether to use them.

“Heart disease—not breast or any other cancer—is the No. 1 killer of women over age 65 and the second leading cause of death among women aged 45 to 64,” says Rajiv Maraj, MD, FACC, Interventional Cardiologist with Mercy Medical Center. 

Heart-healthy lifestyle

A heart-healthy lifestyle can help reduce your risk of coronary artery disease, heart attack, and stroke. And it can help you manage other problems that raise your risk. These problems include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.

Heart-healthy habits include staying smoke-free, eating heart-healthy foods, exercising regularly, and staying at a healthy weight.

Medicines

You might take medicines, along with making healthy lifestyle changes, to lower your risk. These may include:

• Medicines to treat other conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol.
• Aspirin. If you're at high risk of a heart attack or stroke and you're at low risk of bleeding, your doctor might talk to you about taking an aspirin every day to lower your risk. Don't start taking daily aspirin without talking to your doctor first.

Birth control and hormone therapy for menopause

Talk with your doctor about what type of birth control is right for you. Healthy, young, nonsmoking women probably don't increase their risk of heart attack and stroke when they use hormonal birth control options. But these options might increase your risk if you smoke and are older than 35, you have risk factors for atherosclerosis, or you have a blood-clotting disorder.

Work with your doctor to decide whether you want to use hormone therapy to relieve symptoms of menopause. You and your doctor can talk about your health, your preferences, and your risk of heart attack and stroke.

“Remember, the best treatment is prevention,” said Dr. Shaikh. “Cardiologists do not just treat people who already have heart disease, we also practice prevention. If you would like to discuss your risk for heart disease, or if you have a concerning change in symptoms, ask to see a cardiologist today.” 

For more information, please visit DignityHealth.org/Merced/Heart.

© 2025 Ignite Healthwise, LLC. This information does not replace the advice of a doctor.