IS YOUR HEART IN THE RIGHT PLACE?

Heart disease in women presents differently than in men – so make sure you know the signs.

Despite the fact that coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading underlying cause of death in this country, recent research by La Trobe University has found that women are more likely to be under-treated for the deadly disease – particularly women under 45 years of age – when compared with similarly affected men. The research involved analysing the GP records of 130,926 patients aged over 18 with a history of CHD from 2014-2018.

“There’s a widely-held assumption that CHD only affects older men – but almost half of people who die from the disease are women,” Professor Rachel Huxley, La Trobe epidemiologist and lead researcher of the study, said.

Heart disease symptoms in women are sometimes different from those in men. While traditional risk factors for CHD exist for both sexes – including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, diabetes, obesity and depression – some other factors that can also play a role in CHD in women include menopause, pregnancy complications and oral contraceptives. Australia’s Heart Foundation estimates that 90 per cent of women have one risk factor for heart disease, and 50 per cent have two or more.

According to the Mayo Clinic (a medical organisation based in the US) while the most common heart attack symptom in women is some type of pain, pressure or discomfort in the chest, it is not always severe or even the most prominent symptom. And, sometimes, women can have a heart attack without any chest pain. Women are more likely than men to have heart attack symptoms that are unrelated to chest pain, such as neck, jaw, shoulder, upper back or abdominal discomfort; pain in one or both arms; shortness of breath; nausea or vomiting; sweating; unusual fatigue; and light-headedness or dizziness. Women’s symptoms may occur more often when women are resting, or even when they’re asleep. Mental stress may also trigger heart attack symptoms in women.

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, also known as broken heart syndrome, is a condition that occurs almost exclusively in women. Harvard Medical School reports that the condition is caused by a weakening of the left ventricle, often as the result of emotional or physical stress – such as the loss of a loved one, a sudden illness, or a natural disaster. Over 90 per cent of reported cases are in women aged 58-75, with researchers suspecting that older women are more vulnerable because of reduced levels of oestrogen after menopause.