HOW WOMEN BRUSH OFF THE DANGER SIGNS AS INDIGESTION
Look at the risk factors for heart disease – and being a man is top of the list.
‘This suggests that women do not face a risk of heart disease – and that’s entirely misleading,’ says Anna Dominiczak, Professor of Medicine at Glasgow University’s Institute for Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences.
Furthermore, women are more likely to die immediately after a heart attack. A French study of 5,000 heart attack patients found that nine in every 100 female patients died in hospital compared with four in 100 men.
The research, published in the Archives of Cardiovascular Disease, found that the women had waited, on average, an hour before calling for help compared with 44 minutes for men. The researchers warned this 16-minute difference might be crucial.
So why do women delay getting help? It’s partly because their heart attack symptoms can be different, says Dr Ghada Mikhail, a consultant cardiologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
‘While chest pain is almost always the first symptom in both sexes, women often report shortness of breath, upper back or stomach pain, nausea and fatigue, which are easily dismissed as panic attacks, indigestion or simply ageing.’
one woman who knows the dangers of ignoring warning signs is Yvonne Genas, 55, a charity housing officer from Nottingham. She had a heart attack in November 2012.
‘I had all the classic symptoms – sweating, breathlessness, chest pain,’ she says. ‘But as I sat slumped over my desk, my colleagues looking on in horror, it didn’t occur to me I was seriously ill.
‘That night I took paracetamol and went to bed early that night. I went to work for the next three days, but the symptoms were worsening, I only went to the GP when I got a horrible cough.
‘She told me to get a taxi to A&E. Within an hour, tests showed I’d had a heart attack. The next day, I had surgery to open up a blocked artery. Eight days later, I was discharged with a bunch of drugs.
‘What stopped me from seeking help earlier? The fact I went to the gym regularly and thought I was fit. Now, I take time for myself.’