Anahad O’Connor writes for the New York Times about heart disease in women. Women, more than men, often have heart disease, but they downplay or ignore the symptoms, which puts them at higher risk of heart attack. Do you have heart disease and not know it?
Heart disease kills more Americans than any other condition, nearly 700,000 people a year. About 400,000 of them are women. Also, more women appear to be getting heart disease than ever before.
A lot of women end up dying because they do not recognize heart attack symptoms, which can include everything from chest pain, fatigue, dizziness, jaw pain, and nausea to indigestion. Women tend to have milder heart attack symptoms than men.
Women often wait too long to get needed care and don’t get the health care they need. And, health care providers tend not to diagnose and treat them. Consequently, women are more likely to die of heart disease than men.
Women typically have heart attacks at around age 69. Men tend to have them earlier, at around age 61
What should you do to protect yourself if you are not feeling well? If you are not feeling well and there’s any chance it could be a heart attack, make sure that your treating physician or the physician at the hospital takes an EKG. You want to rule out a heart attack as quickly as possible.
What are the most common symptoms of a heart attack in women? Unlike most men, women with a heart attack might not experience chest pain, the largest heart attack symptom. Instead, women might find themselves short of breath, fatigued or experiencing cold sweats. They might also suffer from jaw and back pain.
Doctors tend not to recognize symptoms of a heart attack in women. Women with heart attacks who do not experience chest pain are more likely to die. They and their physicians are less likely to diagnose their condition. But, even with chest pains, women are more likely to die than men.
Women who experience chest pains are not likely to be diagnosed with heart attacks as quickly as men either. Many physicians are inclined to see the symptoms in women as mental. But, physicians tend to see the symptoms in men as heart disease.
Not surprisingly, physicians are even less likely to recognize chest pain symptoms in women of color as a heart attack. One study found that women waited about 11 minutes longer to get treatment than men, with women of color waiting even longer. Fewer women with chest pains are admitted to hospital than men. Also, health care providers tend to spend less time evaluating women and tend to provide women with EKGs less frequently than men.
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