Think you know what happens when someone has a heart attack? Well, did you know that a cardiac event affects men and women in different ways?
The classic cardiac arrest, as portrayed on film and TV, shows an individual struggling with chest pain or pressure in the chest area. However, women – and in particular younger women – don’t present with those atypical symptoms when suffering a heart attack. In fact, they don’t usually have chest pain and because of the lack of an obvious sign of a cardiac event, the mortality rate among women is higher than for men of the same age.
Research involving the medical records of more than 1.1 million treated at almost 2,000 American hospitals from 1994-2006 revealed that 42% of female patients came to hospital without any of the chest pain or pressure typically regarded as symptomatic of a heart attack. The figures for women under the age of 45 showed they were a third more likely than men of the same age to seek medical treatment without any pain.
The symptoms that women did have included upper body pain, nausea, light-headedness and shortness of breath. Other women reported vomiting and coming out in a cold sweat. The study showed that young women hospitalised without reporting any chest pain were 20% more likely to die from a cardiac arrest than men of a similar age.
There are four typical symptoms, aside from chest pain, that can indicate if someone is suffering from a heart attack – indigestion; pain in the stomach, neck or jaw; headaches; and fatigue.
Indigestion is a common problem but when combined with jaw, chest or back pain, it can indicate something more serious. If the individual is also anxious or sweating excessively, it’s time to seek medical help.
Unexplained pain in the stomach, neck or jaw, combined with fatigue, is another warning sign. Migraines make an individual at higher risk of a heart attack while fatigue and shortness of breath that cannot be explained should be checked out as soon as possible.
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