Women’s heart health, across your life
A pregnancy years ago. Changes in midlife. A result you don’t understand. Your Heart Story brings the pieces together for your next healthcare visit.
Free. No account or email needed. Every question is optional.
Never been pregnant? You belong here, too.
ASK. RECORD. RESPOND.
Love your heart. Live your life.WHY HEART STORY EXISTS
Pregnancy history is heart history. For adults preparing for a routine healthcare visit, Heart Story brings earlier experiences, today’s questions and the next agreed step into one conversation.
Add the question, history or result you want to discuss. One detail is enough to begin.
Save or print your summary. Bring it to your clinician and talk through what comes next.
Record the agreed next step, contact and timing. Save an editable draft to update later.
Your answers stay in this tab. They are not sent to HEART RESERVE or saved automatically. Save an editable draft to return to your notes. You share the summary yourself; Heart Story does not contact your care team, monitor your health or choose your care.
Your history belongs together
Your hormonal health, emotional wellbeing and heart health belong in one conversation. Start with the part of your life you want to talk about, and carry earlier history forward.
Choose a chapter for ideas about what to share and what to ask. You can start anywhere. These are starting points for adults, not stages you have to fit into.
Start my Heart StoryWhen periods began, changes in their pattern, heavy bleeding, low iron, or a PCOS diagnosis (also called PMOS in the new guidance). Mark what you are unsure about.
“Which parts of my period history should we review alongside my heart-health results?”
Add my period historyThe year, any complications you were told about, and what follow-up you had. Include each pregnancy you want to discuss.
“What from my pregnancy history belongs in my heart care today?”
Add my pregnancy historyHow have you been since delivery? You can share your recovery, feeding concerns and any follow-up you’ve had. Your pregnancy details can stay with these notes.
“Who is following my health after pregnancy, what happens next, and when?”
Add my postpartum chapterChanges in periods, sleep or symptoms, when they began, and any hormone medicines. You do not need to know your life stage to begin.
“Could we review these changes together with my blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar?”
Add my midlife changesWhat you know about menopause timing, surgery or treatment, along with current symptoms and medicines. Keep earlier pregnancy and period history in the same story.
“What should we follow now, and when should we review it again?”
Add my menopause historyYour numbers, medicines, sleep, emotional wellbeing and practical support belong in the conversation. You belong here whether you have been pregnant or not.
Add daily life and supportWhat happens next, and when? Write down the plan you agree on with your care team. Save a copy so you can update it after your visit.
Record my follow-upInformed by the October 2026 AHA, AAP, ACOG and SMFM guidance. Its four clinical life stages run from the first menstrual transition through postmenopause; pregnancy can affect care across stages. These five chapter links are HEART RESERVE’s own way to organize your history, not a clinical stage assessment. Read the guidance and sources. No affiliation or endorsement is implied.
PREGNANCY HISTORY, WITH CONTEXT
Twins. Pregnancy loss. An unexpected complication. Explore the research and the follow-up guidance, including where answers are still developing.
Explore the evidenceA look inside Heart Story
Put your history, questions and results in a summary you can save or print. After your visit, keep the plan you agree on with your notes.
Create my Heart StoryWHAT YOU CAN BRING TO YOUR VISIT
Complete with your care team.
A summary you can save, print and bring with you.
You choose what to share.
FOR NURSES, CLINICIANS & HEALTHCARE PROGRAMS
The patient tool helps a woman prepare for the conversation. The developing institutional platform addresses the next question: who is responsible for each follow-up step, and did it reach resolution?
Explore the care-team workflow →Explore patient, care-team and program views using fictional records. Secure institutional deployment and independent clinical approval are still ahead.
Your Heart Story here helps you organize your history, prepare questions and record the plan you agree on with your care team. Separately, we’re developing research features to support heart-health follow-up after pregnancy complications.
The separate research version proposes specific next steps, shows the findings and guideline sections behind them, distinguishes missing records from missed care, and records clinician review and follow-through. Blood filtration and urine albumin remain separate assessments.
Demonstrated in software: 162 fictional scenarios passed the corrected rule checks. These are developer tests. Independent clinical approval is still required for every proposed rule.
The public demonstration contains fixed fictional examples. It does not assess your health, place orders, contact a care team or verify that care occurred.
See the fictional research examples and exact test results →
Meet Lisa
Lisa Zahakos, RPA-C
Physician assistant · Mother of four · Founder
For years, I thought this was only my sons’ story. My pregnancy complications and our time in the NICU changed how I understood my own health.
I created HEART RESERVE to bring that experience together with what I learned in cardiology and preventive medicine.
I’m Lisa Zahakos, a physician assistant and founder of Heart Reserve.
For years, I thought of my twin pregnancy as my sons’ story.
In twenty eighteen, I was pregnant with identical twin boys, Peter and Maurice. They shared one placenta and developed a serious condition called twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. Blood was flowing unevenly between them.
We traveled to Miami for fetal laser surgery. I had complications of my own. Ten days later, I delivered the boys by emergency C-section at twenty-eight weeks and five days.
Peter came home after fifty-three days in newborn intensive care. Maurice stayed for about three months.
I understood the medical language, but I still needed help. I needed our medical team, my family, prayer, and other mothers’ stories. I started writing about our experience, and that connected me with other families.
Today, Peter and Maurice run across soccer fields.
At forty-five, I went for a checkup because I didn’t feel quite like myself. I began asking which parts of that pregnancy might still matter to me, their mother.
I can’t say my pregnancy caused the changes I noticed years later. I wanted to understand whether anything in my history should change how we looked at my health now.
Some pregnancy complications, including high blood pressure and diabetes during pregnancy, are linked with a higher chance of heart disease later. What they mean for you depends on your whole history and your health now.
Pregnancy history is heart history.
I created Heart Reserve to help you bring your health history, your test results, and your questions into a more useful conversation with your clinician. I want you to understand what you’re hearing and know what to ask next.
Maybe you’re trying to understand a blood test, noticing changes in midlife, or wondering what a heart problem in your family means for you. You belong here whether you’ve been pregnant or not.
When I talk about reserve, I’m thinking about the life I want to keep living. I want to stay active, keep my independence, and be there for my children as they grow. I want women to have the information and support to care for that future.
Before your next routine visit, write down one part of your health history you’re unsure about. Then ask: “Does this change what we should check for my heart now?”
The free Heart Story at heart reserve dot blog can help you organize what you want to bring.
This podcast offers education. Your own care team can help you decide what the information means for you.
Love your heart. Live your life.
Narrated with an AI version of Lisa Zahakos’s voice, created and used with her permission.
Download the audioMy story · She Said Next
Bring this conversation to your community.
Invite Lisa to speak