Purpose of review: The number of female athletes participating in sports has increased exponentially over the past century. While cardiac adaptations to exercise have been well described, female athletes have been underrepresented in many prior studies. More recently, important research has embraced gender as an important biologic variable. We will review this work in order to examine how gender influences the impact of exercise on the heart.
Recent findings: Exercise-induced cardiac remodeling (EICR) manifests slightly differently in male and female athletes. Specifically, female athletes have fewer signs of EICR on the electrocardiogram than male athletes, though are more likely to have anterior T wave inversions in the absence of cardiac disease. Cardiac enlargement due to exercise follows a different pattern in female versus male athletes, with females having similar chamber size when adjusted for body size but lower left ventricular mass. Recent research also suggests that female masters athletes may be less likely to have excess coronary disease, atrial fibrillation, and myocardial fibrosis, all of which have been posited though not proven to be sequelae of long-term endurance exercise in males. Gender appears to be an important modifier of the relationship between exercise and associated cardiac remodeling. The biological mechanisms underlying gender-based differences in EICR are poorly understood and will be an important area of future research.
Keywords: Cardiac adaptations; Exercise-induced cardiac remodeling; Female athletes; Women’s health.