Sex, Gender, and Cardiovascular Health in Canada.

Sex and gender are complementary concepts, but they are not interchangeable. Sex relates to biology, such as hormones and chromosomes, while gender relates to our lived experiences and how we move through the world.

The CWHHA recognizes and understands sex and gender differences as they impact how individuals seek knowledge and cardiovascular care, as well as clinical best practices used to diagnose and treat individuals with cardiovascular presentations in Canada.

We understand that health is shaped by many different and intersecting factors, including sex (e.g., female, male, intersex), sexual orientation (e.g., straight, LGBTQ+), gender identity (e.g., cis-woman, trans, and non-binary), race, ethnicity, indigeneity, immigration status, education, income, culture, geography (e.g., urban, rural), etc. We focus on an intersectional approach to understand and address cardiovascular health in Canada and welcome the experiences and needs of all individuals who identify as a cis-woman, genderqueer, genderfluid, gender neutral, Two-Spirit, non-binary, bigender, agender, or transgender individual (she, her, they).