Women with diabetes are at a 44 percent higher risk of heart diseases than men with the same disorder, a new study finds.

Diabetes brings with it the risk of other health issues, including coronary heart disease (CHD). The findings of a new study revealed that this risk may be greater among women than men. The study, which was conducted by a group of researchers from various universities, found that women with diabetes are at a higher risk of developing CHD than men with the same disorder, irrespective of other differences that contribute to elevating CHD risk.

The study looked into data collected between 1966 and 2011, which included 64 studies, 858,507 people and 28,203 CHD events. Researchers noted that women with diabetes were three times more likely to develop CHD than women without diabetes, irrespective of their age. However, men with diabetes were only two time more likely to develop heart diseases than men without the disorder.

After combining both these information, researchers found that women with diabetes were at a 44 percent higher risk of CHD than men with diabetes. The findings support a smaller-scale study that highlighted women with diabetes have a 46 percent higher risk of dying of CHD than men with diabetes.

One of the biggest reason for this risk difference is the under treatment of women. A 2013 study highlighted that though more women are dying of heart diseases, men still receive prompt and better treatment for the same illness.

"We should be horrified that we, as women, don't get the same treatment as men when we come in with a heart attack," Martha Gulati, co-author of the study said, according to Forbes. "We should be horrified that we don't get the same life-saving therapies."

A previous study also highlighted that women with diabetes are at a 26 percent greater risk of experiencing a stroke than men with diabetes.

In the current study, the authors speculate that women may have to metabolically deteriorate further than men to become diabetic. Hence, they are at a worse stage than men when treatment finally begins. Also, in the pre-diabetic state where glucose tolerance may already be impaired but does not meet all diagnostic criteria of diabetes, risk factor levels are more elevated in women than in men.

"It is conceivable, therefore, that the diabetes-related excess risk of CHD in women may be due to a combination of both a greater deterioration in cardiovascular risk factor levels and a chronically elevated cardiovascular risk profile in the pre-diabetic state, driven by greater levels of adiposity in women compared with men," authors of the study pointed out in a statement. "If confirmed, the implementation of sex-specific interventions before diabetes becomes manifest-such as increased screening for pre-diabetes, especially in women, combined with more stringent follow-up of women at high risk for diabetes, such as women with a history of gestational diabetes-could have a substantial impact on the prevention of CHD."

Researchers also said that physicians are more likely to recognize early CHD symptoms in men than in women because of men's higher absolute risk. The researchers said that further studies need to be conducted to determine the exact mechanism behind why women with diabetes are at a higher risk of heart problems than men.

The new research was published Thursday in the journal Diabetalogia. The study was funded by a Niels Stensen Fellowship.