Female Heart Attack Symptoms
Almost everyone is familiar with the “classic” symptoms of a heart attack but many people are unaware that female heart attack symptoms can be different making the condition harder to recognize in women.
About Heart Attacks
Approximately 500 thousand people die each year from a heart attack in the United States.
While traditionally heart disease was considered to be mostly a men’s disease, the number of women who succumb each year to heart disease is climbing rapidly and will soon reach the same level as men.
A heart attack is medically known as “myocardial infarction”. It is a condition that occurs when the supply of blood and oxygen is suddenly cut off from a section of the heart muscle, causing death of the heart tissue. The most commonly recognized symptom of a heart attack is sudden chest pain but women often do not have this symptom. Heart disease and heart attacks in women are often under diagnosed and inappropriately treated.
Female Heart Attack Symptoms
While the classic hallmark symptom of heart attack has been considered to be crushing chest pain, only 30% of women who had a heart attack report significant chest pain and well over 43 percent of women who have a heart attack report that there was no chest pain at all. Women are more likely to have symptoms such as:
- Shortness of breath
- Weakness
- Fatigue
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Lower chest discomfort
- Feeling of indigestion
- Back pain
- Feeling of impending doom
- Tightness or fullness in the chest
As heart disease is America’s number one killer and over 5 times the number of women die from coronary heart disease each year than those who die from breast cancer, it is important for more medical professionals and women themselves to recognize the different female heart attack symptoms that can occur. In addition, women are less likely to report minor changes in health as traditionally they are the care takers and often take care of themselves last. Some theories exist that as women have had to undergo the pain of childbirth, there is a natural female resistance to the experience of pain and a reluctance to complain.
Even though this is true, when closely questioned some women have reported physical changes that occurred for up to a month prior to the heart attack. These early female heart attack symptoms included:
- Sleep disturbance
- Shortness of breath
- Severe anxiety
- Indigestion
As over 60 percent of women who experience sudden death from a cardiac event had reported no symptoms prior to the heart attack it is important for all women to recognize risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, poor diet, and lack of exercise and treat or eliminate them whenever possible. Women should also immediately investigate changes in physical condition and seek treatment immediately for any symptoms of female heart attack that they experience. The best way to prevent death from a heart attack is to get immediate treatment at an emergency room. Women should not allow the physician to simply “send them home”.
Even though the condition may appear to be simple indigestion, an anxiety attack or back strain it is important to ensure that an EKG (electrocardiogram) is performed to look at the heart rhythm and detect female heart attack symptoms.
