Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the world’s leading cause of morbidity and mortality in women. However, most of the studies about physiologic factors, preventive strategies, and therapeutic interventions have been conducted mainly in men. Consequently, in the past few years, there has been a decline in the prevalence of CVD in men but not in women. One of the reasons for this difference could be gender-based disparity in cardiovascular care; women have been under-evaluated and under-treated for cardiovascular prevention. In addition, in the past decade, important information regarding specific female conditions, such as body composition, use of sex hormones, and long-term consequences of complications during the pregnancy, suggested that they may affect the onset, clinical course, and prognosis of CVD. Pregnancy is a state where significant physiologic adaptation occurs; from the cardiovascular point of view, these changes include an increase in blood volume, a decrease in total vascular resistance, and a small increase in heart rate and stroke volume maintaining a stable mean arterial pressure. In addition to those cardiovascular changes, pregnancy exhibits a relative insulin resistance and up-regulation of proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 and blood clotting factors. The magnitude of these changes has led some authors to consider pregnancy as a “maternal stress test,” in which some women do not tolerate the associated hemodynamic and metabolic changes and develop complications such as recurrent pregnancy loss, stillbirth, premature labor, gestational diabetes, or preeclampsia. Epidemiologic studies provide evidence that women with the above-mentioned complications of pregnancy are at increased risk for CVD later in life. The results of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort in Heidelberg showed that women who experience spontaneous pregnancy loss/stillbirth are at higher risk of myocardial infarction later in life, independent of the other known factors of CVD. Women who had recurrent pregnancy loss had a hazard ratio (HR) for myocardial infarction of 8.9 (95% CI, 3.18–24.9). In the same cohort, patients who had a stillbirth exhibited a myocardial infarction HR of 2.32 (95% CI, 1.19–4.5). For preterm labor, the CVD risk was increased by 2.0 (95% CI, 1.22–3.47). In addition, several studies have shown that hypertensive pregnancies are at greater risk of CVD (including cardiac, cerebrovascular, and peripheral arterial disease). Population-based studies link preeclampsia to an increased risk of later chronic hypertension (relative risk, 1.3– 8.0) and cardiovascular morbidity/mortality (relative risk, 1.3– 3.07) compared with normotensive pregnancy. Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has also been associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular events, but the direct link between GDM and CVD has not been as clear as for hypertension. Nevertheless, women with previous GDM exhibit higher values of endothelial dysfunction, higher C-reactive protein levels, and higher levels of inflammatory markers, as well as a strong association with intimal media thickness, all of which are conditions that increase the risk for CVD. It has been shown that a high proportion of women with GDM will develop type 2 diabetes within 2–5 years, which in turn will increase the woman’s risk for CVD. These results highlight the importance of early identification and A. M. Cuevas (*) Department of Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism, Clinica Las Condes, Santiago, Chile e-mail: acuevas@clc.cl