When Kimbrooke Pavlich was diagnosed with high cholesterol as a teen, doctors prescribed traditional statins. But the medication didn’t work, so she stopped taking it and was labeled noncompliant, overweight and inactive.

But the former collegiate swimmer and aerobics instructor was none of those.

“They kept telling me that I was the problem when in fact they were the problem. So I went 37 years undiagnosed and untreated, and it wasn’t until I was 54 that I began having symptoms … irregular heart rate and chest pain,” recalled the Suwanee resident, now 58.

Kimbrooke Pavlich, a WomenHeart champion, underwent open-heart surgery at Emory Hospital to replace a heart valve. (Courtesy of Aidan Pavlich)

“My Apple Watch began to give me feedback that I was going into AFib (atrial fibrillation) occasionally, and I just had chest pain that was actually in my back and below my left breast. It wasn’t anything like you see on a movie.”

A visit to the cardiologist ultimately revealed a genetic disorder that had gone undetected so long that it required open heart surgery to replace a heart valve. One of her 20-year-old twin daughters was also diagnosed with the same condition.

Pavlich and her daughter Aidan are now using their experiences to join a network of WomenHeart champions, or patient advocates, to draw attention to often misunderstood or misdiagnosed heart disease risks for women.

The nonprofit, which advocates for women living with or at risk of heart disease, partnered with Merck, the Atlanta Braves and eight other professional baseball teams to launch the Playing with Heart initiative, a campaign designed to promote heart health. The initiative debuted last year as a pilot program with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Just days after Mother’s Day, during the Braves’ May 14 game against the Chicago Cubs at Truist Park, former Braves catcher Javy Lopez urged fans to talk with their doctors about their cholesterol scores, namely whether they have a high level of “bad” cholesterol. Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) can increase their risk of heart attack or stroke.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. But too many women experience delays in diagnosis because of symptoms being dismissed or misattributed to anxiety, stress, or other non-cardiac issues, WomenHeart reports.

In the U.S., nearly half of women (44%) are living with some form of heart disease, and yet only slightly more than half (56%) of American women recognize it’s their top killer, according to the CDC.

Pavlich’s cardiologist, Dr. Gina Lundberg, applauded the new campaign.

“Think how many people go to the Braves games,” said Lundberg, clinical director of Emory Women’s Heart Center and a cardiology professor at Emory University School of Medicine. “This is a great way to highlight the importance of heart disease in women.”

Former Atlanta Braves catcher Javy Lopez is featured on 'Playing with Heart' information cards, educating fans about how to improve their heart health. (Courtesy of the Atlanta Braves)

“Women are worried about breast cancer and what we call their ‘bikini health.’ They go to the gynecologist. They get their Pap smear. They get their mammogram, and many of them have never had their cholesterol checked, never had an EKG (electrocardiogram), never even had a discussion on the cardiovascular risk factors or an assessment of their heart health,” she said. “We think of it all as encompassing comprehensive women’s healthcare.”

Lundberg said women have been disregarded when it comes to diagnosing heart disease because of a lack of testing to determine risk factors. Pregnancy complications can cause cardiovascular problems later in life, but researchers hesitated for decades to study women of reproductive age or those who were pregnant, she said.