For the first time, four major US medical groups say a woman’s period should be treated as a vital sign for her heart

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, killing more than 400,000 a year in the United States, yet only about 4 in 10 women see it as their biggest health threat. On Monday, the American Heart Association and three other major medical groups published joint guidance in the journal Circulation. It is the first time the four groups have laid out a shared plan for women’s heart health from the first period through menopause and beyond.

The groups are the American Heart Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. The most striking change in their guidance is how it treats periods. It recognizes menstrual cycle patterns as a female-specific vital sign for heart health. Heavy or irregular bleeding can be an early marker of cardiovascular risk, for example as a sign of polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, the condition long known as polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS.

Pregnancy gets the same treatment. The groups describe it as a biological stress test that can unmask heart risk that was there all along. High blood pressure in pregnancy, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, preterm birth, a small baby or stillbirth are now listed as female-specific risk enhancers, and the 2026 American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology cholesterol guideline includes pregnancy-related factors in women’s risk assessments.

“Women experience their healthcare across clinical specialties, but it often is fragmented or disconnected,” said Sadiya Khan of Northwestern University, who chaired the writing group. The guidance, she said, recognizes that women’s heart health is shaped by transitions men never go through: periods, pregnancy, perimenopause and menopause.

The framework splits a woman’s life into four stages defined by hormones: the years around the first period, roughly ages 8 to 15; the years of regular cycles, roughly 15 to 44; perimenopause, roughly 45 to 51; and postmenopause. Each stage comes with its own warning signs, and the guidance asks pediatricians, gynecologists, obstetricians and cardiologists to pass what they learn along instead of starting from scratch. The guidance came out alongside a presidential advisory that sets out the life-stage framework and a science advisory calling for specialized women’s heart centers.

The second finding is about a gap that already exists. Only about 60% of US women who had blood pressure complications in pregnancy get follow-up care for their blood pressure within six months of giving birth, and the groups call for immediate action on that. Cardiovascular conditions now account for more than a third of maternal deaths in the United States.

The guidance also calls perimenopause a cardiovascular turning point, when cholesterol and metabolism can shift, and notes that postmenopause can make up as much as 40% of a woman’s life. Most heart attacks, strokes and heart failure in women happen in those years, and the groups say more than 80% of them are preventable if action is taken early. That fits a pattern our readers have followed, from postpartum depression and later heart disease to endometriosis symptoms doctors miss and which form of hormone therapy is safest.

“Pregnancy history is heart history,” is how the groups put it, and the practical advice follows from that. If you have had heavy or irregular periods, a complicated pregnancy, or an early or difficult menopause, it is worth making sure your doctor knows, and asking whether it changes how your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar should be checked.

There are limits to what this is. These are scientific statements and advisories that summarize existing evidence and set out a framework. They are not a new study, and the American Heart Association notes that scientific statements inform guidelines but do not themselves make formal treatment recommendations. How quickly this changes everyday care will depend on doctors and health systems adopting it.

Source

Consensus Guidance for the Female-Specific Prevention and Management of Cardiovascular Disease: A Scientific Statement. Circulation, 2026.
DOI: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001482

Also cited

A Female-Specific Life Course Approach to the Prevention and Management of Cardiovascular Disease: A Presidential Advisory. Circulation, 2026.
DOI: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001483

Comprehensive Centers of Excellence for Women’s Cardiovascular Care: A Science Advisory. Circulation, 2026.
DOI: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001481