Heart disease and women

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Heart, section through the middle

Heart, front view

Acute MI

Overview

Heart disease and women

Information:

Mention the term "heart attack" and most people imagine a pudgy, middle-aged man drenched in sweat and clutching his chest. Ask a woman what she fears most and chances are good she'll reply "breast cancer."

Few patients seem to consider cardiovascular disease (CVD) as a "woman's disease."

text continues below

But in fact, heart disease kills more women each year than the next 14 causes of death combined. Approximately 250,000 American women will die from a heart attack this year. Yet only a handful of women believe that heart attack and stroke are their greatest health threat.

The misleading notion that heart disease is not a real problem for women can be blamed in part on medical research. For a very long time, heart disease studies have focused primarily on men. Changes are under way, but some doctors still fail to recognize the warning signs displayed by female patients.

EARLY HEART SIGNS

A study funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research found that women experience undiagnosed warning signs weeks, months, and even years before having a heart attack.

"We're finding that, on average, most women experience warning signs 4 to 6 months prior to their heart attack," says study investigator Jean McSweeney, a professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

To obtain her results, McSweeney's team interviewed more than 600 female heart attack survivors at medical centers and hospitals in Arkansas, Ohio, and North Carolina.

Significant differences exist in the symptoms displayed by women and men. Men typically experience the "classic" heart attack signs: tightness in the chest, arm pain, and shortness of breath. Women's symptoms -- nausea, an overwhelming fatigue, and dizziness -- are strikingly different and are often chalked up to stress.

"Women started telling me how they had a hard time getting physicians to listen to them about these early warning symptoms," says McSweeney.

Unusual fatigue, trouble sleeping, shortness of breath, indigestion, and anxiety were the top 5 symptoms reported by both black and white women in the study. However, black women had more intense episodes and reported them more often.

"That surprised us, and we plan to look into it," says McSweeney. "We do know that black women have more co-existing conditions, such as obesity and diabetes, that could increase their likelihood of having heart disease."