Heart attacks in women can be different from those of men. In this article, you’ll learn about the signs that should warn you. Most women know the symptoms of a heart attack – the overwhelming pain in the chest, shortness of breath, nausea. However, it turned out that, in fact, these symptoms are rather typical for men. Heart attacks in women can be different, and it is very important that all the women to know how to distinguish the signs that show a heart attack.
Symptoms of a heart attack in women
Typical symptoms of a heart attack include chest pressure or sensations like muscles are crossed by a stabbing or like if they were “squeezed”, say cardiologists at the University of Maryland. When describing their symptoms during a heart attack, most often, humans show a “tight” fist. Some people describe the feeling like their chest tightens.
However, in women, symptoms may be less typical. Although women may experience chest pain or discomfort, many of them do not experience these symptoms. In studies performed on female patients who had suffered heart attacks, scientists have found that, during such an attack, 43% of the 515 women studied had no “acute pain chest” – symptoms prevalent among men.
The study noted some common symptoms of heart attack in women: shortness of breath (57.9%), weakness (54.8%), unusual fatigue (42.9%). Women also had other atypical heart attack symptoms: nausea, dizziness, discomfort in the lower chest, chest pressure in the upper abdomen or discomfort that feels like indigestion, back pain on the upper level.
Women often are unaware that these symptoms can be a sign of a heart problem and blame heartburn or indigestion, arthritis or stress, experts say. If women have difficulty when breathing (while making a minimal effort), they automatically say they are no longer fit, they are overworked and tired.
A woman reported that pain was hitting first in the left breast and left arm. She did not know that these are the early symptoms of a heart attack and do not think her heart could be liable because she was young, healthy and above all, not obese. Then the pain moved to her shoulder and back. She took painkillers, which stopped the pain.
But the next day, the young woman aged 36 years was overwhelmed by other sensations, more powerful nausea, sweating, vomiting, chest pain. Soon, the ambulance transported her to the hospital. Doctors were later concluded the correct diagnosis because she did not fit the profile of a patient who suffered a heart attack. However, doctors have said it is too young to suffer a heart attack, he was not overweighted, and there was no other case of heart disease in her family history. One week after the first pain occurring in the breast and left arm, the cardiologist diagnosed her correctly, and he said he suffered a heart attack.