Menopause Heart: A Cardiologist's Guide to Women's Most Urgent Health Risk

Heart disease is the #1 killer of women. Acclaimed cardiologist Dr. Jayne Morgan reveals why menopause is a critical turning point for your heart—and what you can do now to protect it.

For decades, women’s heart health has been understood through a male-centered medical model—one that has too often treated women’s symptoms as “atypical”, overlooked important warning signs, and failed to recognize menopause as a major turning point in cardiovascular risk. In The Menopause Heart, cardiologist and nationally recognized heart health expert Dr. Jayne Morgan explains how and why women’s hearts can behave differently, what changes during the menopause transition, and how to recognize the risks that conventional care may miss. Most importantly, she shows women how to turn that knowledge into action—so they can ask better questions, seek the right tests, and get the care they need before heart disease takes hold.

Dr. Morgan explains what women need to know about:
- How heart attack symptoms and warning signs can present differently in women.
- The role of estrogen receptors in the heart—and what happens to cardiovascular risk as estrogen declines.
- Blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, visceral fat, inflammation, and metabolic changes.
- Pregnancy complications, autoimmune disease, migraines, and other female-specific clues to future heart risk.
- The labs, tests, and assessments that can uncover risks conventional screening may miss.
- What to track, what to ask, and what to discuss with your doctor.
- Dr. Morgan’s PIVOT framework for identifying cardiovascular risks that traditional models may overlook.
- How movement, nutrition, sleep, blood-pressure monitoring, medications, and menopausal hormone therapy may fit into prevention and treatment.

Drawing on the latest science, decades of clinical experience and research, and her own experience of menopause, Dr. Morgan turns this information into a practical plan for action. The Menopause Heart is not about frightening women—it is about giving them the knowledge to ask better questions, recognize warning signs, advocate for themselves, and work with their physicians and healthcare teams to reduce risk. Menopause is not simply a time of hormonal change; it is an opportunity to take stock of your heart health and change its trajectory—protecting not only your next forty million heartbeats, but the decades of life that depend on them.