After years of hints that women may have different symptoms and outcomes of heart disease than men, the American Heart Association has made it official. This week the organization published a scientific statement on heart attacks in women. (Next week, the Wear Red awareness campaign will have millions of women wearing red dresses on Friday, February 5, 2016.)
How Women Experience Heart Attacks:
Although chest pain is the most common symptom of a heart attack in both males and females, women are more likely to experience nausea or vomiting, shortness of breath and neck or back pain instead of just chest pain.
This may delay the diagnosis of a heart attack and make them less likely to get prompt emergency treatment. As a result, women’s heart attacks are 20 percent more likely to be fatal than men’s. Either men or women sometimes mistake heart attacks for heartburn, though we have heard that story from or about women more frequently.
Circulation, online, Jan. 25, 2016
Previous studies have shown that there are gender differences in the effects of the diabetes drug metformin on women’s and men’s hearts. Women’s hearts responded to the drug with favorable metabolic changes, while men were more likely to develop heart failure.
The basics are the same for both sexes, though:
Aspirin for people who have already suffered a heart attack; the doctor may also prescribe a statin for such individuals
Staying in touch with your doctor
