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Study: "Women have same heart attack symptoms as men, including chest pain"

Kennarina
3 Recommendations

You may have come across this 'research' report in the past week. All week I've been thinking that this study on heart attack symptoms (done on patients having an elective, scheduled, non-emergency angioplasty procedure in the CATH LAB, for Pete's sake - NOT during an actual real-life heart attack) is bringing worldwide media attention to what many of us already know from painful experience is inaccurate information: the "myth" of gender differences in heart attacks. It's hard enough as it is to get women to pay attention to unusual heart attack symptoms (fatigue, back pain, 'impending sense of doom' etc) This study perpetuates the myth of the "HOLLYWOOD HEART ATTACK" .

What do you think?

*****

"Women have same heart attack symptoms as men, including chest pain"
By Anne-Marie Tobin (CP) – 5 days ago

Heart attack symptoms in men and women are more alike than some previous studies have indicated, according to research unveiled at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress.

No difference was found between men and women in the reporting of chest pain, the most common symptom associated with a heart attack, and other typical symptoms, such as sweating, shortness of breath and pain in the left arm, said study co-author Martha Mackay, a cardiac nurse and clinical research fellow and doctoral student at the University of British Columbia School of Nursing.

"Some studies have shown no differences ... but almost as many studies showed that there were differences, and that women reported chest pain less often," said Mackay, who is also with St. Paul's Hospital Heart Centre in Vancouver.

"And so this study, I believe it comes closer to settling the issue."

But one difference was detected, she said, as women reported jaw, neck and throat pain significantly more often than men.

The congress, which got underway Sunday in Edmonton, is being co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.

For the study, Mackay said her team looked at 305 patients - almost 40 per cent of them women - undergoing angioplasty, a procedure in which a balloon is blown up in an artery to push away blockages.

"During that balloon inflation, for those few moments, you're actually blocking blood downstream, because it blocks the artery while the balloon is inflated, and that process actually mimics a heart attack," explained Mackay.

"But the difference is it's a very controlled situation, it's in a hospital with a bunch of health professionals around, and cardiologists and so on."

The questions about symptoms being experienced were asked during the balloon inflation, she said.

"And we only looked at people that we could show that their heart muscle was actually lacking oxygen during those few moments."

Mackay said the work began in 2004 and arose from concerns raised by previous research indicating that women tend to delay seeking treatment when they have a heart attack.

"People haven't been able to sort out why that might be. And one of the theories is that women don't seek treatment because they don't understand they're having a heart attack because their symptoms are different."

Mackay said women should be counselled that they may well have throat or jaw or neck pain, and if they end up in emergency, they should tell the doctor about all their symptoms - not just the ones they are asked pointedly asked about, such as chest pain.

Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson Dr. Beth Abramson said that while women may describe their pain differently than men, the most common symptom is still chest pain.

The challenge is that women are less likely to believe they're having a heart attack, she noted.

"Being aware of the warning signs and acting on them quickly could save your life - or the life of someone you love - and minimize the damage to your health," she said in a statement.

Mackay concurs.

"I think it's important that women get the message that in fact, their symptoms are more similar than different to men, and that they are most likely to have chest pain, just like men, and other typical symptoms, just like men," she said.

"They should stop what they're doing and rest. If the pain doesn't go away in three or four minutes, they should call 911. They should not take themselves to emergency."

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

*******

XOXOXO

http://www.myheartsisters.org

Explore topics in this discussion:

Acid reflux Back pain Kidney stones Morphine Anxiety Stent Nausea and vomiting Heart disease Dizziness Cardiac syndrome X Stroke Sweating Fever Pain Heart attack Valium

14 replies

Asurvivor

Really? Not so in my case!

I had a numb index finger a month before my heart attack. I laughed when my friendly chiropractor said to go to a cardiologist. I almost demanded he fix my "pinched nerve".. of course, I had no pinched nerve and he knew it. I waited and waited and finally the feelings of doom came while at the post office. I raced home. Then I had pain under my left arm, a burning pain like a pulled muscle. No problem, no problem! One day after a cigarette at work, I was stopped short in my tracks because it felt like someone punched me in the sternum. It went away, Hey it's okkkkkkkkk! I worked in a hospital. I'm sure someone will notice if I'm not well. I went home at the regular time. Went back by ambulance the next morning with fleeting back pain and ringing ears and an bigeminy heart beat (one reg, one pvc, one reg, one pvc etc etc.) I had a STEMI. Should have died by all standards. That would be ST elevation MI, inferior wall.. fatal to 95% of the women who have it. A friend of mine had hers the same day; died in the shower. Her son found her.

She ignored the signs too, because it can't be this way. No left arm pain? No jaw pain? No grabbing of the chest? No sweating, nausea, shortness of breath? No typical man's chest pain. I was NOT having a heart attack, no way. Do men have tooth pain? Do they have an earache? How about numbness in one index finger on the RIGHT hand?

Sorry to disagree with that article but it's not exactly right. A lot of women do have different symptoms and both men and women do ignore them - however, the doctors ignore women more than men.

"They should stop what they're doing and rest. If the pain doesn't go away in three or four minutes, they should call 911"

Could be too late. Call right away. It doesn't matter if it's nothing, ER's don't care. They get their money whether or not you have a heart attack.

Kennarina

Your chiropractor referred you to a cardiologist because of a numb finger? Genius!! You're a perfect example of a variety of women's atypical symptoms - fleeting back pain, ringing in the ears - that added up to a massive heart attack.

I too think this study got it wrong. Unfortunately if you Google the study lead author's name (Martha McKay) + heart attack, you'll get thousands of hits where the media has already picked up and passed on sensational headlines on this flawed study like "The Heart Attack Myth!"

It's put women's heart disease awareness back a full decade.

XOXOXO

http:www.myheartsisters.org

NZGirl

Hi Kennarina
Maybe you should send them your "How does it really feel to have a heart attack?-Women Survivors tell their stories" page from your Heart Sisters website. I think it would be invaluable information for them.
If left to their own devices they will certainly only set us all back with this reinventing of old myths, and we all know that progress is painfully slow as it is without this (mis)information getting into the mainstream media.
Take Care, Sharon

maternalcaregiver

I agree...after my newly diagnosed Microvascular disease and TRUE angina...it is a shame that most of the medical folks out there DO shrug off women's sx. versus men's symptoms. I was told I was just "STRESSED' and "menopausal-NOT..on my 2ND cycle NOW since my hospitalization in 9/09" and my NORMAL cath PROVED I had NO heart disease. I was sent home w/o any meds..but ASA. Thank goodness I have a cardiologist now who "gets it". Just last week I called the nurse there to let her know I was still hurting a little..they insist you call if you hurt..and she spoke with the cardiologist who is now also ordering a gallbladder ultrasound just to mkae sure this is not also a problem. Even his nurse re-iterated his well -known statement that he's drilled to his staff - " the first sx. of heart disease in women can often be sudden death"- and I don't want my female patients to be that statistic.

megandjacksnan

I read this report last week sometime and I felt my heart sink into my boots and had a sickly feeling that this would put women's heart symptoms back a decade. I was told I had cardiac syndrome x but when I had my angiogram my diagnosis was ischemic heart disease. I fight tooth and nail to get people to take my condition seriously but in the UK, if you don't have a blockage, there is nothing wrong with you. Don't worry about the chest pain because you've no chance of having a heart attack.
I was just beginning to believe that my doctors would take my condition seriously, then this turns up. Back to square one..........................It makes me mad!!!!!!grrrrrr

Asurvivor

Yes it did set us back. That woman has no idea what she's talking about.

Queen_E

I did have the classic symptoms - but I could not imagine I was having a heart attack, so it did not matter that they were the same.

jaw pain first, but I thought "Did I sleep on it funny?"
left arm pain, thought "Gee, usually the computer makes my right arm hurt"
dizziness, chest pain, thought "Why am I having an anxiety attack, I'm not anxious about my 1 pm meeting?!"

Seriously I thought "Hmm, these DO seem like heart attack symptoms"
Thankfully a co-worker did not care *what* it was, she was going to call 911.

I *do* recall when they expanded my stent, blocked my artery - HOLY COW !! Was yelling OW OW OW THAT HURTS THAT HURTS!!
would have been nice to be warned it was coming, it was NOT a feeling I ever wanted to experience AGAIN, the prior day HA was sufficient. I was pretty much asleep before that (valium, lovely valium).

Kennarina

I too had 'textbook' heart attack symptoms (crushing chest pain, nausea, sweating, pain radiating down my left arm) but I was STILL sent home from the E.R. with an acid reflux diagnosis! If they're sending home women with these 'Hollywood Heart Attack' symptoms, what are they doing with women who report jaw pain, or back pain, or fatigue during their heart attacks?

I had 10 mg of morphine by the time I got up to the cath lab for my stent, so don't even remember that 'moment' of the stent being inflated.

GUESS WHAT? In a particularly odd case of irony, I've been invited to participate in a "Women & Heart Disease Forum" this month in Vancouver - and guess who will be on the panel with me? The very same Martha MacKay who is this study's author!

Do you think I should pass on to her all of your comments... especially "this woman has no idea what she's talking about!"?!?!?

XOXOXO

http:/www.myheartsisters.org

primetimelady

She is full of garbage (nice way of saying you know what). We may have similar symptoms as men but we do not experience the same severity of pain, almost as if our symptoms are much more vague then a man's symptoms. She may as well just come out and tell the truth, that a man is more likely to receive treatment for a heart attack than a woman. "Truth is, starting at the age of 35, heart disease is the leading killer of women. Even though heart disease is the leading killer of women they are still less likely to receive aggressive treatment for either the disease or a heart attack." I think that came from AHA. From my own personal experience I suffered from a STEMI or more specific a right inferior MI and the ER was preparing to discharge me to home because I didn't have typical symptoms of a heart attack. Four days later while in CCU I started complaining of chest pain again... and once again I was told that I wasn't having typical symptoms. Thank God the telemetry told them something else. A controlled environment such as the cath lab and angioplasty only shows that we might experience the same symptoms during the cath. Both sexes pass kidney stones but to what I understand it hurts a man a hellovalot more than it hurts a woman.

Reikiwoman

Hi Kennarinia ~

It's Bj, your little Heart sis from Washington. I think you should make a point to talk to Martha Mackay while you are at Women & Heart Disease Forum.

It would be the perfect opportunity to ask her out for a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and ask her "What were you thinking!" and point out how flawed the research was. Well, maybe you can say it in a far more politically correct way. But I would be curious to know where she is coming from and who influenced her writing? AND, has she had any experience personally?

Better yet, connect her with WomenHeart! She needs to hear our stories. :)

You Go Girl!

All the best,
Bj

Rose

Kenna,

You should give her all the comments. Evidently she never had a heart attack. We will look forward to hearing how you meeting with goes.

Have a great time and keep letting us know all the valuable information you receive.

Warm Regards,

Rose

AlaskaGirl

Wow! One of the main things I tell women and men at any personal appearances that I do is that having a heart attack is nothing like what you see in the movies and on TV. That is what people are looking for when they are in distress with a heart attack - so, if they don't have to clutch their chest and have sharp stabbing pains that they are not having a heart attack! Yeow! This is why people die before or just after getting to the hospital - they're waiting for the wrong symptoms. Even those of us who have lived with heart disease for years - we, sometimes, don't recognize the signs of trouble and wait too long for help. That's a sad state of affairs. Sharen, AlaskaGirl.

laurahc

DEFINITELY tell her all of our comments, and like Sharon says, whack her upside the head with a copy of your "How does it really feel to have a heart attack?-Women Survivors tell their stories" blog post, too!

While I had the "classic" heart attack symptoms--chest pain that radiated down my left arm, up into my jaw, the nausea, the overheating--the most alarming one to me was the arm pain. That was what hurt more than anything else, really. The chest pain was worrisome but the arm pain was what was making me cry.

You have to let us know how the forum goes! :)

-Laura (of the long hair)

Kennarina

NEW UPDATE FROM MAYO CLINIC!!!!!

I emailed Dr. Sharonne Hayes for her take on this study; she replied the same afternoon (what an amazing thing! Since attending the WomenHeart Symposium last year, I have a world-class expert to call on!) Here's part of what I'm writing on this for my blog, to run AFTER the Vancouver Forum on Women and Heart Disease on the 25th:

*****

"Scratch any woman heart attack survivor and you’ll likely uncover an amazing litany of weird initial symptoms – some so weird you’d never believe them to be remotely cardiac in nature. Lips turning numb, elbow pain, earache, nausea, vomiting, fever – do these sound like heart attack warning signs to you? Yet these and many other atypical symptoms are reported every day during real-life heart attacks by many women.

Since I started doing public presentations about women and heart disease, it’s been an uphill battle to convince women of the need to recognize and respond immediately to heart attack symptoms – ALL symptoms. These may include the textbook heart attack sign of chest pain (as I experienced myself during my own heart attack) but may also include many vague signs that women do report. And now we are faced with cardiac research that seems to dismiss those vague symptoms?

I felt confused and dismayed. This study was garnering extensive media pickup, as we say in public relations, and a real buzz in cardiac circles.

I knew I had to go to an expert to answer our concerns about what was becoming high-profile news. For me, that meant only one person: Mayo Clinic cardiologist Dr. Sharonne Hayes, director and founder of the Mayo Women’s Heart Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. I e-mailed Sharonne a copy of the Heart & Stroke Foundation press release, and asked for her take on the ‘Heart Attack Myth’ study. Here’s what she told me:


“Their study is not conclusive – that would be a bit of a stretch – but everything else that is quoted is factual and/or good advice, except for the last sentence in the second paragraph. "These findings suggest that this (men and women having different HA symptoms) is simply not the case. ..”

“Every patient has unique symptoms. While there may be a few more women with nausea and vomiting, and a few more men with obvious chest symptoms or radiation down the left arm, both may have a 25-30% ‘atypical’ presentation rate. So it is not accurate to state definitively that women have more ‘atypical’ symptoms. Women do have MORE symptoms, however, making it more challenging to sift through all of them and come up with a diagnosis.

“The other issue is that the only way we are going to get the answer to this is more research, and if we ask for more research, we cannot just reject as 'flawed' any study that does not fit with what we believe. Instead, we have to put that research into perspective.

“No study, including this one, is the ‘be-all/end-all’. Each piece of research builds on the prior studies, and this one is valid to the point that it demonstrates that men and women experience similar symptoms when they have ischemia due to an acutely occluded coronary artery (which is what happens during a heart attack in many, but not all people). What it does not translate to is that there are no sex differences in heart attack symptoms. Not every heart attack occurs as a result of sudden, complete blockage such as this. And we do not have prospective sex-based data on symptoms.”

Sharonne also included in her e-mail to me something she had written two years ago for WomenHeart:

“Even when women have “classic” heart attack symptoms, they are more likely to be misdiagnosed and have delayed care compared to men. This has nothing to do with sex differences, but does have to do with the need for better health care provider education and diagnostic tools. Women need early detection (which means early recognition of symptoms), accurate diagnosis (symptoms taken seriously and investigated appropriately) and proper treatment.”

*********************************


What do you think?

XOXOXO

http://www.myheartsisters.org

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