Signs of Heart Disease in Women
By: Tsou JinyeuTotal Views: 125, Word Count: 576,
When people imagine a heart attack, they often visualize the ‘Hollywood heart attack’ as someone grips their chest in pain and collapses to the floor. While chest pain is the most universal symptom of a heart attack, not everybody experiences chest pain during an attack. In fact women are less liable to feel chest pain during a heart attack. Studies suggest that more women than men experience typical symptoms such as nausea, fatigue or back pain and for many people, a heart attack won’t strike without a warning.
A study of 520 women who had a heart attack found that 95% of them experienced symptoms before it. For this reason, it’s vital to recognize several symptoms and signs of a heart disease in women. Even if you have previously suffered a heart attack, the symptoms of a second attack might not be the same as your first.
Symptoms of Coronary Artery Disease
Women build up symptoms of heart disease an average of 10 years later than men. In a multi center study of 520 women who had an acute heart attack, the most commonly reported symptoms were sleep disturbances, unusual fatigue, breath shortness, anxiety and indigestion. Most of the women (about 78%) reported at least one symptom for more than 1 month before their heart attack. Only 30% reported chest discomfort which was described as tightness, pressure, aching, sharpness, burning, tingling or fullness.
You should immediately contact your doctor for a full assessment if you have these symptoms. This is even more significant if you have risk factors for heart disease such as smoking, diabetes, family history, hypertension and hyperlipidemia. A full risk factor assessment combined with symptoms and an exam would help the doctor to know your risk for future events and guide extra testing.
Symptoms of Heart Attack
Women are less likely to distinguish the symptoms of a heart attack and seek treatment immediately. By recognizing and learning the symptoms and signs of heart disease in women, they could become more confident in their treatment. The most common symptoms of heart attack in women are:
- Weakness, unusual fatigue, cold sweat
- Breath shortness, dizziness
- Pressure or pain in the back or high chest
- Pain or discomfort in one or both arms
- Discomfort might be described as ache, pressure or tightness
- A burning feeling in the chest or upper abdomen
- Irregular heartbeat and nausea
Several lifesaving heart attack treatments such as clot busting drugs and balloon angioplasty work best if given within the first hour after the heart attack. Several heart attack patients particularly women wait for 2 hours or more after their symptoms begin before they take medical help. This hindrance could result in either death or long lasting damage of heart and is one of the reasons why women tend to experience worse outcomes after an attack than men.
Learning to distinguish the wide variety of signs of heart disease in women that might be experienced before an attack would help you in getting the treatment fast and might even save your life.
About the Author
Dr Tsou Jinyeu is a well known gynecologist and has been in this field since 1995. His special interests are – genetic and birth defects, high risk obstetrics, lupus in pregnancy, premature labour, premature delivery, triplets and ultrasound diagnosis. He is graduated from the University Of Illinois College Of Medicine. Nowdays he is working as a medical doctor at Elmhurst Loyola Center for Health.
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