In this episode of Blindspot Capital, Maryann Selfe speaks with Professor Carolin Lerchenmüller, cardiologist, clinician-scientist, and Switzerland’s first Chair of Gender Medicine, about why heart disease presents differently in women and how hormones across pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause fundamentally reshape cardiovascular risk.
Drawing on decades of research spanning molecular cardiology and clinical care, Carolin explains why modern cardiology guidelines failed to account for female biology and what gender-informed, hormone-literate cardiology must look like next.
We Cover:
How pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause alter cardiovascular symptoms and risk in women
Why preeclampsia and gestational hypertension are early predictors of lifetime cardiovascular disease
How declining estrogen levels affect blood vessels, cholesterol metabolism, and plaque formation
Why cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in women worldwide and why awareness remains dangerously low
What a hormone-literate, gender-informed cardiology system would require in research, diagnostics, and care delivery
Carolin’s predictions for the future of gender medicine and why she sees a turning point in science and clinical practice
Links
Learn more about the Women’s Heart Health Program at University Hospital ZurichFollow Professor Lerchenmüller on LinkedIn
And share this episode. With a founder. With a policymaker. With a friend. Because this blind spot doesn’t fix itself.
Join 10,000+ readers of the FemmeHealth newsletter on Substack.
--------------------------
📌 Watch full episode on YouTube
Get full access to The Billion Dollar Blindspot at blog.billiondollarblindspot.com/subscribe
