7 Heart Attack Symptoms in Women You Shouldn't Ignore (pain, my throat, diabetics)
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Most of us think of stabbing chest pain as the telltale symptom of a heart attack. But that's not always how symptoms present—particularly among women.
“There’s no real good anatomic basis for it, but it happens all the time,” Dr. Weinberg says. According to Nieca Goldberg, M.D., medical director of the Women's Heart Program at NYU Langone Medical Center, part of the problem may be that men and women describe their pain differently and have different pain thresholds. Women are also more likely to delay getting to the hospital and to worry about feeling silly if they aren't actually having a heart attack, she tells SELF, which may make their condition more serious when they actually do arrive at the E.R."
There have been tons of posts on C-D about "am I having a heart attack?"
Maybe this article will help some of you in the future
Women have the same symptoms as men, but in different frequency: women are more likely to have "silent MI" (maybe because women are more likely to have CAD associated with DM, than men who have more CAD associated with smoking?).
Men are more likely to complain of nausea (left ventricle sits on the diaphragm and we're not programmed to accurately describe internal troubles). SOB should always be considered to be cardiac first and other things second. Cold, clammy sweat breaking out suddenly w/wo palpitations may be "the big one."
Rather than being aware of the symptoms of acute MI, maybe it's better to have a high index of suspicion that the pt is prone to CAD and do stress testing early, rather than wait for obvious symptoms. Now with the availability of stenting, real damage can often be delayed significantly.
Diabetics should be considered to have CAD until proven they don't. Two or more positive risk factors: HTN, smoking, metabolic syndrome, cardiac dysrhythmia deserve early stress testing. Strong family history of early CAD (before age 50) deserves testing. Unusual SOB on exertion should be considered anginal and get early stress testing.
^^ From my link: "In the years since, Kreatsoulas has explored that common perception — that men tend to have "typical angina" and women tend to have "atypical angina." Her latest study finds the medical reality is very different, says Dr. Deepak Bhatt, a leading cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, who also worked on the study. . . It found, he says, "that widespread belief that men and women experience chest pain differently is probably not true. That is, of course there are differences between men and women, but in terms of chest pain, how they describe it is more similar than different." "
There have been tons of posts on C-D about "am I having a heart attack?"
Maybe this article will help some of you in the future
Thanks Mike for posting, but I don't think there was much of anything on the list of warning signs that is new to most of us. It also appears there isn't much difference between women and men's symptoms.
Yep. I had several heart attacks in my late 30s. Female, in shape etc.
It came out of nowhere. So rare that at first the EMT asked me "so what did you do last night? It's just an anxiety attack. You on drugs? You know they'll test you right???" Then he made me walk to the rescue truck and up the stairs.
My throat & neck were killing me. Not my chest. Bizarrely, I just "knew" I was having a heart attack. Weird, right? I had ZERO typical issues or symptoms. I was also having a normal EKG at first. You should have seen the faces of the staff when my bloodwork became back. The closest first hospital was primarily a psych hospital...and zero pain meds because they thought I was just some delusional woman. I thought the lead ER doc was going to pass out. A non drug user, younger female with a bloodwork thru the roof???? I was dying.
They may have been surprised that the tests came back positive, but they weren't so surprised that they didn't do the right tests.
Katarina: in English we know the difference between "if" and "when." In German, you guys use the same word "wenn" but switch from active to subjunctive mood.
That study didn't mention percentage of complaints. If a woman is having an MI and complains of chest pain, it's the same description as the men, ifthey complain of pain. Most pts don't complain of pain, but use words like crushing pressure or nausea or "just not feeling right" and most studies say silent MI is more common in woman. One study isn't going to change that.
They may have been surprised that the tests came back positive, but they weren't so surprised that they didn't do the right tests.
Katarina: in English we know the difference between "if" and "when." In German, you guys use the same word "wenn" but switch from active to subjunctive mood.
That study didn't mention percentage of complaints. If a woman is having an MI and complains of chest pain, it's the same description as the men, ifthey complain of pain. Most pts don't complain of pain, but use words like crushing pressure or nausea or "just not feeling right" and most studies say silent MI is more common in woman. One study isn't going to change that.
I am an American. KW is my CD name.
The issue with women's health is that it's hard to get someone to listen to a woman, no matter what the symptoms. They/we are always getting blown off.
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