Most Prevalent Diseases/Conditions Affecting U.S. Women

One important distinction first: “most prevalent” is not the same as “leading cause of death.” If we rank diseases by how many U.S. women live with them, the order looks very different from a mortality ranking.

Because there is no single CDC/NIH dataset that ranks every disease in women using the same methodology and year, the most defensible approach is to combine the best recent national prevalence estimates and clearly label where the estimates are comparable—and where they aren't.

Most prevalent diseases/conditions affecting U.S. women

Rank	Disease / condition	Estimated prevalence among U.S. women	Approx. women affected	Why it ranks highly
1	Obesity	41.3% of women ≥20	~55 million	One of the most common chronic health conditions; strongly associated with diabetes, heart disease, stroke and several cancers
2	Hypertension (high blood pressure)	44.6% of women ≥18	~115 million adults overall; tens of millions of women	Extremely common, particularly after menopause; major risk factor for heart disease and stroke
3	Arthritis	21.5% of women ≥18	~28+ million	Women have substantially higher prevalence than men (21.5% vs. 16.1%)
4	Autoimmune diseases — collectively	~5.8% of women	~9.7 million	Approximately 4 in 5 people diagnosed with autoimmune disease are female; includes lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's, MS and others
5	Asthma	~11% of adult women	~14.5 million	Female adult prevalence is substantially higher than male prevalence
6	Diabetes	~10%+ of women, depending on definition/age	Tens of millions	Major chronic disease; prevalence increases sharply with age
7	Heart disease	~44% of U.S. women according to CDC's broad "some form of heart disease" measure	>60 million	Particularly important because it is the #1 killer of women
8	Cancer	Large lifetime/ever-diagnosed burden	Millions	#2 cause of death; breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women
9	Chronic kidney disease	Several-million-woman burden	Millions	Often underdiagnosed; women experience a substantial CKD burden
10	Osteoporosis / low bone density	Particularly high after menopause	Millions	Disproportionately affects women and drives fractures, disability and loss of independence

There is an important caveat with that table: the first several entries cannot be treated as a mathematically precise 1–10 league table, because the studies use different definitions, age ranges and survey methods. For example, CDC's 41.3% obesity figure applies to women age 20+, while its 21.5% arthritis estimate applies to adults 18+. Heart disease is also defined more broadly in the CDC women's-health statistic than the clinical disease categories used in some other surveys.

1. Obesity — ~41.3%

CDC estimates that 41.3% of U.S. women age 20 and older have obesity. That's an enormous population burden—roughly four in ten adult women.

Obesity is particularly important because it isn't isolated: it substantially increases the risk of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea and several cancers.

2. Hypertension — 44.6%

This is arguably the most prevalent disease state on the list.

CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey estimated that 44.6% of U.S. women age 18+ had hypertension during August 2021–August 2023. Prevalence rises dramatically with age.

Hypertension is especially important for women because it is a major contributor to:

• heart disease
• stroke
• kidney disease
• pregnancy complications
• vascular dementia

3. Arthritis — 21.5%

CDC found that 21.5% of adult women had diagnosed arthritis in 2022, compared with 16.1% of men. That's roughly one woman in five.

The prevalence rises enormously with age: CDC reported arthritis in 53.9% of adults ≥75.

4. Autoimmune disease — ~5.8%

This category deserves special attention because of the enormous sex disparity.

A large U.S. electronic-health-record study covering 105 autoimmune diseases estimated that approximately 9.7 million U.S. women (5.8%) had at least one autoimmune disease. The corresponding estimate for men was 3.5%.

NIH summarizes the broader literature as finding that approximately four out of every five people diagnosed with an autoimmune disease are female.

This category includes diseases such as:

• rheumatoid arthritis
• lupus
• multiple sclerosis
• Sjögren's disease
• autoimmune thyroid disease
• psoriasis/psoriatic disease
• inflammatory bowel diseases
• type 1 diabetes

The individual diseases are much less prevalent than hypertension or obesity, but collectively autoimmune disease represents a very large women's-health burden.

5. Asthma — ~11% of adult women

CDC's 2023 National Health Interview Survey estimated 14.47 million adult women with current asthma, representing 11.0% of adult women.

The sex difference is notable: women had substantially higher prevalence than men.

An earlier CDC analysis found adult asthma prevalence of 9.8% in women versus 6.2% in men.

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But if you mean "which diseases kill women the most?"

That ranking is much clearer—and arguably more important medically.

Using the latest final U.S. mortality data (2024), CDC reports that the overall leading causes of death were heart disease, cancer, accidents, stroke, chronic lower-respiratory disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, kidney disease, chronic liver disease and suicide.

For women specifically, the latest detailed CDC sex-specific table available from the NCHS report shows this pattern:

Leading causes of death among U.S. women

1. Heart disease
304,970 female deaths in 2023; approximately 20.7% of all female deaths. CDC explicitly identifies heart disease as the leading cause of death for women.

2. Cancer
Approximately 19.8% of female deaths in 2023.

3. Stroke
Approximately 6.2% of female deaths.

4. Alzheimer's disease
Approximately 5.3%. Alzheimer's has a particularly large impact on women because women live longer on average and constitute a large majority of people living with Alzheimer's disease.

5. Chronic lower respiratory disease
Approximately 5.3%.

6. Unintentional injuries/accidents
Approximately 5.0%.

7. Diabetes
Approximately 2.7%.

8. Kidney disease
Approximately 1.8%.

9. COVID-19
Approximately 1.6% in 2023.

10. Hypertension
Approximately 1.5%.

The CDC's underlying 2023 mortality report is particularly useful because it breaks the rankings down by sex rather than simply giving the overall U.S. ranking.

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The most important takeaway

If your goal is to understand the diseases that affect women most, rather than simply the diseases that kill the most women, I would organize the women's-health burden into these broad tiers:

Very high prevalence

1. Hypertension
2. Obesity
3. Arthritis
4. Heart disease
5. Asthma

High collective burden / disproportionately female

6. Autoimmune diseases
7. Diabetes
8. Depression and anxiety disorders
9. Osteoporosis/osteopenia
10. Chronic kidney disease

Major disease-specific women's-health burdens

11. Breast cancer
12. Endometriosis
13. Migraine
14. Thyroid disease
15. Gynecologic disorders such as uterine fibroids and PCOS

And there's a crucial distinction: prevalence does not equal severity. For example, hypertension may affect vastly more women than breast cancer, but breast cancer produces a much larger disease-specific cancer burden. Conversely, heart disease affects enormous numbers of women and is the leading killer.

Breast cancer as an example

In 2022, 279,731 new cases of female breast cancer were reported in the U.S., and 42,213 women died from breast cancer in 2023.

Diabetes

CDC's latest National Diabetes Statistics Report estimates 40.1 million Americans had diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes in 2023, or 12.0% of the population. Men have somewhat higher prevalence than women, so diabetes is extremely important to women's health but isn't uniquely female.

Why heart disease deserves special emphasis

The CDC estimates that more than 60 million U.S. women (44%) are living with some form of heart disease, and 304,970 women died from it in 2023. That makes cardiovascular disease simultaneously one of the country's largest women's-health burdens and its leading cause of female death.

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Most Prevalent Reproductive Disorders and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) Affecting U.S. Women

One important clarification first: “reproductive and sexually related diseases” is broader than sexually transmitted infections (STIs). If we include reproductive disorders such as fibroids and endometriosis, they are substantially more prevalent among U.S. women than most STIs.

There is also no single federal ranking that puts all of these conditions into one dataset. So the most defensible approach is to rank them using the best available U.S. prevalence estimates, while clearly distinguishing lifetime prevalence, current/point prevalence, and annual incidence. I would not rank them by number of new cases alone, because that would produce a very different—and potentially misleading—list.

Chronological ranking: most prevalent first

Rank	Disease/condition	Approximate U.S. burden in women	Type of measure	Why it ranks here
1	Uterine fibroids (leiomyomas)	~70–80% by age 50; ~26 million women ages 15–50 in one U.S. estimate	Lifetime/cumulative prevalence	By far one of the most common reproductive disorders. Many are asymptomatic.
2	Vulvovaginal candidiasis (yeast infection)	~75% of women have ≥1 episode; 40–45% have ≥2	Lifetime prevalence	Extremely common vaginal condition, although it is not generally considered an STI.
3	Human papillomavirus (HPV)	~38.4% of U.S. females ages 15–59 had HPV in 2018; ~19.2 million had a disease-associated HPV type	Point prevalence	By far the most prevalent sexually transmitted infection when measured as current infection.
4	Endometriosis	~6.1% diagnosed prevalence in women 18–49 in a large U.S. study; roughly 6.5 million women of reproductive age are commonly estimated to be affected	Diagnosed prevalence	A major chronic reproductive disease associated with pelvic pain, painful sex and infertility.
5	Genital herpes (HSV-2)	~12.2 million women ages 15–49 in the CDC's 2018 STI estimates	Point prevalence	One of the most common chronic STIs; many infections are undiagnosed.
6	Trichomoniasis	~2.1 million women at a given time; U.S. female prevalence ~2.1%	Point prevalence	One of the most prevalent curable STIs in U.S. women.
7	Chlamydia	~1.3 million women with prevalent infection in 2018	Point prevalence	The most commonly reported bacterial STI in the U.S.; especially concentrated among younger women.
8	Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)	~2.5 million women ages 18–44 reported a lifetime diagnosis; 4.4% of sexually experienced women	Lifetime prevalence	Often develops as a complication of untreated chlamydia/gonorrhea and can cause infertility and ectopic pregnancy.
9	Gonorrhea	~155,000 women with prevalent infection in the 2018 CDC estimate	Point prevalence	Much less prevalent than HPV, herpes, trichomoniasis or chlamydia, but U.S. incidence is substantial and has risen markedly over time.
10	Syphilis	~38,000 women with prevalent infection in the 2018 estimate	Point prevalence	Less common than the infections above, but particularly important because of pregnancy/congenital complications.
11	HIV infection	~208,000 women in the 2018 prevalence estimate	Point prevalence	Lower prevalence than most STIs, but substantial lifetime health consequences.
12	Gynecologic cancers — uterine, ovarian, cervical, vulvar and vaginal	Tens of thousands of new cases annually	Annual incidence	Much less prevalent than benign reproductive disorders and STIs, but among the most medically serious reproductive diseases.

A major caveat about the ranking

The first two entries deserve special treatment.

Fibroids and yeast infections are so common that they overwhelm the STI numbers, but they are not directly comparable with an STI's point prevalence.

For example, saying that 75% of women experience a yeast infection sometime during life is not equivalent to saying 75% have an infection at a particular moment. Likewise, saying 70–80% of women develop fibroids by age 50 is a cumulative lifetime-type measure, not the percentage who currently have symptomatic fibroids.

If we instead restrict the question to sexually transmitted infections, the ranking becomes much clearer.

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The STI ranking specifically

The CDC's comprehensive U.S. modeling study estimated 67.6 million prevalent STIs in 2018, with 26.2 million new infections that year. Importantly, four infections—HPV, genital herpes, trichomoniasis and chlamydia—accounted for approximately 97.6% of all prevalent STIs.

Among women:

1. HPV — ~19.2 million women with disease-associated HPV

HPV is the clear leader in terms of sexually transmitted infection burden. Among U.S. females ages 15–59, 38.4% had an HPV infection in 2018, while 19.9% had a disease-associated HPV type, corresponding to approximately 19.2 million women.

HPV is particularly important because persistent infection can lead to cervical, vaginal and vulvar cancers. CDC estimates that about 27,081 HPV-associated cancers occur annually among U.S. females, although not every one is caused by HPV.

2. Genital herpes (HSV-2) — ~12.2 million women

The 2018 CDC estimates put female HSV-2 prevalence at approximately 12.2 million women ages 15–49, versus about 6.35 million men.

Unlike chlamydia and gonorrhea, herpes is a chronic infection: once acquired, the virus remains in the body.

3. Trichomoniasis — ~2.1 million women

CDC estimates approximately 3.7 million people overall had trichomoniasis, with prevalence around 2.1% among females compared with 0.5% among males.

4. Chlamydia — ~1.3 million women

The CDC's 2018 model estimated approximately 1.306 million women had prevalent chlamydia infection.

Chlamydia is especially important in women because it is frequently asymptomatic. Untreated infection can ascend into the reproductive tract and contribute to PID, infertility and ectopic pregnancy.

5. Gonorrhea — ~155,000 women

The comparable 2018 prevalence estimate was approximately 155,000 women.

The number of new gonorrhea infections each year is much larger than the point-prevalence number, because treatment can cure the infection.

6. Syphilis — ~38,000 women

The estimated point prevalence among women was approximately 38,000 in 2018.

Its population prevalence is comparatively low, but its consequences during pregnancy make it disproportionately important.

7. HIV — ~208,000 women

The 2018 estimate was approximately 208,400 women living with HIV.

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Reproductive diseases that aren't necessarily sexually transmitted

If your underlying question is “What diseases affecting the female reproductive/sexual system are women in America most likely to experience?”, then the picture changes considerably.

1. Uterine fibroids

This is arguably the biggest reproductive-disease burden in the U.S.

Research indicates that 70–80% of women develop fibroids by age 50, and an AHRQ analysis estimated approximately 26 million U.S. women ages 15–50 have them.

The important distinction is that most fibroids do not necessarily cause symptoms. Among women who do become symptomatic, heavy menstrual bleeding, pelvic pain/pressure, urinary symptoms and reproductive problems are common. Estimates suggest roughly 25–50% of women with fibroids become symptomatic.

2. Vulvovaginal candidiasis

CDC estimates that approximately 75% of women experience at least one episode of vaginal candidiasis during their lifetime and 40–45% experience two or more.

That makes yeast infection extraordinarily common—but again, it should not be classified as a conventional STI.

3. Endometriosis

A large U.S. survey of 48,020 women estimated diagnosed endometriosis prevalence at 6.1% among women ages 18–49.

Other U.S. estimates put the burden at approximately 6.5 million women of reproductive age.

It can cause severe menstrual/pelvic pain, pain with intercourse and infertility.

4. Pelvic inflammatory disease

PID is particularly important because it represents damage to the reproductive system resulting from infection, frequently involving chlamydia or gonorrhea.

CDC's nationally representative NHANES analysis found that 4.4% of sexually experienced U.S. women ages 18–44—approximately 2.5 million women—reported a lifetime diagnosis of PID.

CDC currently states that about 1 in 8 women with a history of PID has difficulty becoming pregnant.

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One particularly important distinction: prevalence ≠ danger

If you are trying to understand which conditions affect women the most, I would use this hierarchy:

By sheer prevalence

1. Uterine fibroids
2. Vulvovaginal candidiasis
3. HPV
4. Endometriosis
5. Genital herpes
6. Trichomoniasis
7. Chlamydia
8. PID
9. Gonorrhea
10. HIV/syphilis and gynecologic cancers, depending on whether you use point prevalence, annual incidence, or lifetime risk

But by medical seriousness, the order changes dramatically. A disease such as ovarian cancer is vastly less prevalent than fibroids but has much greater mortality risk. CDC identifies uterine cancer as the most common gynecologic cancer in the U.S., while ovarian cancer is the second most common and the deadliest gynecologic cancer.

Similarly, HPV is often transient and clears spontaneously, while a relatively uncommon persistent HPV infection can eventually cause cervical cancer. CDC estimates approximately 13,000 new cervical cancer cases and 4,000 deaths annually in the U.S.

Bottom line

If by “affect women the most” you mean how many women experience the condition, the biggest burdens are fibroids, vaginal candidiasis, HPV, endometriosis and genital herpes.

If you mean sexually transmitted diseases specifically, the best-supported prevalence order is:

HPV → genital herpes → trichomoniasis → chlamydia → gonorrhea → HIV/syphilis, with HPV overwhelmingly the most prevalent. The CDC's national analysis found that HPV, herpes, trichomoniasis and chlamydia together constituted roughly 98% of prevalent STIs in the United States.

One final methodological caution: the CDC's most comprehensive all-STI prevalence estimates are based on 2018 data, because prevalence of several infections cannot be measured through routine case reporting. CDC's newer surveillance data are excellent for reported incidence, particularly chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, but reported cases are not equivalent to true prevalence because many infections—especially in women—are asymptomatic and never diagnosed.