- Chest pain, often behind the breast bone
- Chest discomfort or pressure
- Pain that spreads down the left arm and side of the body
- Throat or jaw pain
- Abdominal pain, heartburn, indigestion, nausea
- Cold sweat
- Sudden dizziness or light-headedness
- Fatigue
- Shortness of breath
These are the commonly known symptoms of a heart attack. Heart attacks aren’t as fatal as they used to be because medical intervention has gotten better, and because people have gotten better at recognizing the symptoms of a heart attack. While overall fatality rates linked to heart attacks have declined, women are up to three times more likely to die after a serious heart attack compared to men. Why the disparity?
Although heart disease is sometimes thought of as a “man’s disease,” heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, causing 1 in every 4 female deaths. (To put this into perspective, the likelihood that a woman will die from breast cancer is about 1 in 38, or about 2.6%, due in great part to finding breast cancer earlier through screening and increased awareness, as well as better treatments.)
The disparity is due in part to the fact that, because of the protective role of estrogens, women develop heart attacks in average a decade later than men. Women are older, frailer, and more vulnerable when they get heart attacks compared to men.
Women also typically experience heart attack symptoms differently than men. While chest pain is a common symptom in both men and women, women sometimes have symptoms completely unrelated to chest pain, like fatigue and shortness of breath. A Finnish study found that, from the first point of contact with medical professionals, women were also less likely than men to receive the proper diagnostic tests, more likely to be misdiagnosed, and then less likely to receive the proper treatment.
The medical world is getting better at recognizing issues like this, where gender plays a role in the presentation in illness, but we still have a long way to go. So what can you do? Be informed.
Know the warning signs of a heart attack, know the differences in how heart attacks present in both genders, and call 911 if you or a loved one is experiencing a suspected heart attack.
