Women with atrial fibrillation (AF) have double the risk of stroke and death from cardiovascular disease compared with men, a systematic review and meta-analysis has shown.The authors analysed cohort studies published between January 1966 and March 2015 that reported sex-specific associations between the arrhythmia and all cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, stroke, cardiac events (cardiac death and non-fatal myocardial infarction), and heart failure. A total of 30 studies with 4,371,714 patients were identified and analysed.