United States: Dr. Lawrence Cunningham, a retired doctor, wants people to know that heart attack symptoms can be different, especially for women. While many think of severe chest pain and breathlessness as the main signs, and these women here may experience subtler symptoms like nausea, fatigue, or shortness of breath.
These can often be mistaken for stress or indigestion, which is why it’s really very important to pay attention to these signs.
He said, “In my experience, a common observation is that women commonly neglect or misidentify heart attack symptoms.” He pointed out the traditional perception of a heart attack being a sudden and severe chest pain is primarily based on men’s experiences, whereas women can have less typical symptoms.
As reported by Walesonline.co, Dr Cunningham added: Other factors that we considered are cultural and psychological; women could prefer others more to health issues and might delay to seek help.
As recently as 2019, a study conducted by the British Heart Foundation showed that men and women were treated differently for heart attacks, owing to simple ignorance and even misdiagnosis at the hospital. Amusingly, during a case of heart attack, women were 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed initially while both men and women have a 70% higher risk of death if they were misdiagnosed in the first place.
The outcomes also showed that some precursors of heart disease, which is a primary cause of attacks, is more disastrous to women than men. For instance, hypertension has been established to be four times more hazardous to females than to males and, Surrey Live states, raises the possibility of a heart attack by 80%.
Sadly, they still exist big differences in survival rates after heart attack. An ESC congress held a year ago underscored the fact that women are twice as likely to die just after after a heart attack than men. For the latest health and Covid news, sign up to our newsletter here
At the event, Dr. Mariana Martinho from Hospital Garcia de Orta in Portugal said: The results therefore provide another wakeup call for the need to appreciate the threat of cardiovascular diseases to women. Further studies are still needed to determine why there is a difference in prognosis after myocardial infarction between male and female and efforts be made to reverse it.