It is increasingly known that gender differences affect disease presentation, clinical pathways, diagnostic yield and prognosis of patients with cardiovascular disorders. There are novel insights regarding heart failure that provide a platform for personalized medicine. This is a review of the existent data about heart failure in women, a neglected topic that has gained considerable interest in the past years.

Heart failure in women differs in many aspects from that of men. Part of the difference is attributable to age, ventricular function and cause of heart failure, with women being generally older at heart failure onset, more often without left ventricular systolic dysfunction and less often having heart failure due to ischaemic heart disease, in comparison with men. Elucidation of the genetic and pathophysiological basis of sex differences, together with clinical trials designed to study the impact of treatments in women, could lead to sex based heart failure management.