San Antonio women with heart concerns now have a clinic designed specifically around their needs. University Health has opened a dedicated Women's Heart Center to tackle a long‑standing gap in cardiac care for female patients. The program launched in May 2025 and moved into its own clinic space in April 2026. It treats adult women across the lifespan, with a special focus on pregnancy‑related cardiac issues and syndromes that tend to show up differently in women than in men.
“More than 15 years ago, I knew that women needed special attention to their hearts,” said Dr. Ildiko Agoston, the center’s inaugural medical director, as reported by Community Impact. Agoston leads a team that has prioritized diagnoses such as spontaneous coronary artery dissection and stress cardiomyopathy and also provides care for women undergoing chemotherapy, according to the outlet.
Services and specialists
The clinic offers multidisciplinary care and dedicated cardio‑obstetrics consults, with cardiologists, maternal‑fetal medicine specialists and other subspecialists working together, according to University Health. The program provides tailored screenings, risk assessments and care pathways designed around female physiology and life events such as pregnancy and menopause. Providers say that customizing care in this way helps clinicians spot risks that standard, historically male‑focused pathways can miss.
Why women’s‑specific cardiology matters
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, and many women experience subtler or different symptoms than men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Anatomical and hormonal differences, including smaller coronary arteries and the cardiovascular stress of pregnancy, can complicate diagnosis and treatment, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute explains. Those factors help explain why a specialized clinic aims to catch risks earlier and offer treatment plans tailored to how women’s hearts function over time.
Local impact
Local reporting notes the Women's Heart Center is the first dedicated program of its kind in South Texas and aims to serve patients across the region, including satellite offerings tied to the hospital campus, according to the San Antonio Report. Community Impact also highlights that the clinic’s cardiologists and mid‑level providers are women, an arrangement that leaders say can improve communication and comfort for some patients. Hospital officials hope the center will reduce missed or delayed diagnoses that can be life‑threatening, particularly during and after pregnancy.
Clinicians urge women to get a baseline cardiovascular evaluation with their primary care providers, especially if they have pregnancy complications, a cancer history, or unusual symptoms such as persistent fatigue or shortness of breath. For appointments and clinic details, including the Babcock Tower II location and phone line, see University Health's Women’s Heart Center page at University Health. Program leaders say the goal is to make specialty care more accessible and better matched to how heart disease shows up in women.
