Did you know that women are almost twice as likely as men to die from complications of heart bypass surgery? Women have a smaller body size compared to most men so this may be one of the reasons. A study done on just over 15, 000 patients who had various types of bypass surgeries found that slightly over 4 percent of the women patients died during or right after surgery compared with just over 2 percent of men.

Women who have bypass surgery are generally older than men when they have the surgery. Because the women are older, they have more traditional risk factors such as diabetes and perhaps advanced heart failure.

Since most women have smaller frames than most men, their body surface area is smaller so the risk of dying from bypass surgery is higher. A person's body surface area indicates the size of a person's coronary arteries, subsequently, the smaller vessels can complicate the bypass surgery. This fact may be the reason why smaller bodied people, women, have lower survival bypass surgery.

With all considerations to women's body size, the reason for the higher death rate among women is still not completely explained. It seems as though just being female is in itself a high risk factor when it come to bypass surgery. Doctors are puzzled by this and are searching for answers.

There are still some other questions associated with women and bypass surgery such as whether body fat is a factor in the surgeries and also the hormonal differences between men and women.

After bypass surgery, women will usually need to stay in the hospital longer than men. Women are also more prone to needing blood transfusions during and after surgery than men. The recovery after the bypass surgery can take as long as 4 to 8 weeks and women will sometimes experience difficult emotional and physical challenges as opposed to men.

While the facts for women and bypass surgery are not comforting, women should not opt out of the bypass surgery if it is needed. For many women, the bypass surgery presents the best option for the disease they are experiencing.