New Delhi: Heart attacks and other cardiac conditions are becoming more common in women both in India and around the globe. According to the most recent statistics, conditions like heart attacks and cardiac arrests harm ten times more women than breast cancer. There are numerous factors that can damage a woman’s heart health and increase her risk of developing heart disease. One of the factors quietly increasing women’s risk of cardiac ailments is untreated blood pressure problems that harm the heart.
Receiving emergency medical attention is essential for anyone experiencing a heart attack in order to help save their life. But, a major obstacle to correctly diagnosing women with heart disease is the lack of awareness of symptoms that may be connected to the condition or that do not fit into traditional definitions. Women can experience heart attack symptoms that are more subtle and challenging to identify, particularly if the doctor is only looking for the usual heart attack symptoms.
Listed below are some of the ways by which women’s heart attack symptoms differ from men’s:
1. Women’s Hearts Are Different:
Women typically have higher heart rates than males, and their arteries and hearts are smaller. Their arteries are less clogged with plaque, and the plaque that is there acts differently. Additionally, contrary to what male hormones do, female hormones shorten vessels. Because of this, it is more difficult to fix blood clots or blockages in women’s arteries.
2. Chest Pain:
Chest pain being a common heart attack symptom in men, it’s often much subtler, as most heart attacks start slowly as mild pain or discomfort. People often dismiss heart attack warning signs as heartburn or a pulled muscle, causing them to wait too long before getting help.
Similar is the case with women as well, but sometimes women have heart attacks and feel no chest pain at all, and women are more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms.
3. Tests Respond Differently For Women Than Men:
In some groups of women, certain diagnostic procedures that were once thought to be standard in cardiology have been found to produce contradictory or perplexing findings. Despite new research on screening for heart disease in women, there is still disagreement about the best tests and diagnostic approaches.
Heart Attack Symptoms For Women:
- Unusual fatigue lasting many days or a sudden attack of severe fatigue
- Sleep disturbances
- Anxiety
- Lightheadedness
- Shortness of breath
- Indigestion or gas-like pain
- Upper back, shoulder, or throat pain
- Pain in your jaw or pain that spreads up to your jaw
- Pain or pressure in the middle of your chest that may spread to your arm
Risk Factors:
Among the reproductive factors that increase a woman’s risk of heart attack is early menopause, PCOS, gestational diabetes, and preterm delivery. In addition, lifestyle factors like high cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, obesity, unhealthy eating, sedentary lifestyle, stress, and mental health issues can also have an impact on a woman’s heart.
Additionally, women who have diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol are more likely to develop heart diseases. Therefore, these disorders must be treated and monitored regularly with medication, dietary adjustments, and routine check-ups.