In 2012, Barbra Streisand donated $10 million to Cedars-Sinai to create a research centre focused on women’s cardiovascular health.
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Streisand → donate → health
The gift helped establish the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center, a facility dedicated to understanding why heart disease can affect women differently from men and improving diagnosis and treatment for female patients.
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disease → establish → patients
According to Cedars-Sinai, the centre now provides research-driven cardiac care to more than 1,700 women each year.
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centre → accord → women
It responded to a long-standing gap in medicine, where heart disease research has often relied heavily on male subjects while women’s symptoms and underlying conditions can differ.
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symptoms → respond → subjects
Fourteen years on, the centre remains focused on closing that gap through patient care, research, and education.
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centre → focus → care
Why women’s heart health needed attention
Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women in the United States.
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disease → need → States
Cedars-Sinai says more than 500,000 women die from cardiovascular disease each year, a figure greater than deaths from all cancers combined.
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women → say → cancers
Despite that scale, women have historically been underrepresented in heart-related studies.
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women → underrepresente → studies
Streisand’s own website cites a Los Angeles Times report noting that women made up less than a quarter of participants in heart-related studies, while women’s heart disease was also less likely to be properly diagnosed than men’s.
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disease → cite → men
Cardiologist Bernadine Healy described the problem as “Yentl syndrome” in 1991, referencing the Streisand film about a woman who had to disguise herself as a man to receive an education.
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who → describe → education
The idea was that women often received proper heart treatment only after showing symptoms that resembled those typically seen in men.
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that → receive → men
Streisand’s $10 million contribution helped fund the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai.
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contribution → help → Sinai
The donation was part of a broader campaign that raised more than $22 million for research into women’s cardiovascular health.
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that → raise → health
The singer also helped recruit other major donors, including Michael Bloomberg, Barry Diller, Diane von Furstenberg, Ralph Lauren, Irwin Jacobs, Ronald Perelman, Sumner Redstone, and Haim Saban.
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singer → help → Bloomberg
Several contributed $1 million each, helping expand the centre’s research capacity.
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Several → contribute → capacity
Streisand said she had long been angered by inequality, including gender discrimination in medicine.
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she → say → medicine
She argued that women deserved the same level of scientific attention and research investment as men, particularly in an area as serious as heart disease.
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women → argue → disease
How women’s heart disease can differ
One of the centre’s central goals is to address the fact that heart disease does not always look the same in women and men.
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disease → differ → women
Cedars-Sinai explains that men more often experience the classic heart-attack symptom of chest pain during exertion, while women are more likely to report chest pressure, indigestion, shortness of breath, and fatigue.
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women → explain → breath
The underlying causes can differ as well.
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causes → underlie → ?
In men, heart disease is most commonly linked to a blocked coronary artery.
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disease → link → artery
In women, it is often caused by reduced blood flow in the heart’s small arteries, a condition known as microvascular coronary dysfunction.
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it → cause → dysfunction
That difference matters because standard diagnostic tools may not reveal the problem in women.
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tools → matter → women
The centre says it is developing new treatment strategies and comprehensive risk assessments based on these biological differences.
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it → say → differences
Research-driven care for women
The Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center provides care to more than 1,700 women annually.
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Center → drive → women
Its work combines clinical treatment with research designed to improve how doctors identify and manage cardiovascular disease in female patients.
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doctors → combine → patients
Cedars-Sinai says the centre is one of only a few medical centres worldwide to use an adenosine cardiac magnetic resonance imaging stress test for diagnosing heart disease.
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centre → say → disease
The centre says this tool is better than an angiogram, the standard diagnostic approach for men, at revealing microvascular coronary dysfunction in women.
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tool → say → women
The centre’s approach reflects a shift away from treating women’s heart disease as a smaller version of men’s disease.
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approach → reflect → disease
By studying sex-specific symptoms, risk factors, and diagnostic patterns, it aims to help doctors detect problems earlier and tailor treatment more effectively.
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doctors → study → treatment
A legacy of advocacy
Streisand’s involvement went beyond writing a cheque.
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involvement → go → cheque
She worked with Dr Noel Bairey Merz, the centre’s medical director, to raise awareness and funding for women’s cardiovascular research.
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She → work → research
The two also delivered a TED Talk on the issue in the years before the centre’s dedication.
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two → deliver → dedication
Merz said women’s health research was often constrained by political debates and by the perception that heart disease was less urgent than other conditions.
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disease → say → conditions
She hoped private philanthropy could help stabilise research funding and allow scientists to pursue questions that public grants did not always support.
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grants → hop → that
The centre’s work has helped bring greater attention to an issue that affects millions of women.
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that → help → women
Its focus on research, education, and clinical care reflects Streisand’s belief that women should not have to wait for their symptoms to resemble men’s before receiving appropriate treatment.
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symptoms → reflect → treatment
Why the centre still matters
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centre → matter → ?
Fourteen years after the donation, the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center continues to serve women whose symptoms may be overlooked or misunderstood.
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symptoms → continue → women
Its work remains important because cardiovascular disease continues to kill more women than all cancers combined.
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disease → remain → cancers
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
