I was just wondering....?

Question

Is it true that woman cant tell their having a heart attack? Ive heard that the symptoms are different from a mans.

Answer 1

I have heard the same. I just think that we are so different from men and our symptoms are so different that there needs to be more research on this subject.

Answer 2

Good question.

I also had a heart attack and am a female. I can't say if what I experienced was different than what a man would but what I can say is what I experienced wasn't what I had always heard was typical of a heart attack.

I also got extremely hot. Enough so that I was stripping off clothes (while I could) and the clothes I kept on were soaked with sweat. I was nauseated. I never actually vomitted but Iwas extremely nauseated. I did not have chest "pain". I had chest pressure. It felt as if gravity was pulling my chest through my back. I *did* have sharp pain, almost a burning pain between my shoulder blades in my back though. I also had a pain that radiated down my right arm, not left, right. My left arm was fine. Never felt a thing on that side. About the arm, I don't remember it being a kind of pain like you would feel when you stub your toe. It was more like the sensation that you feel when you hit your funny bone in your elbow. Only it went all the way from my shoulder to well below my elbow and my fingers were numb. Another way to describe it would be if you have ever felt an electrical shock. It felt like that only it wouldn't end. Eventually it just became less intense. I had shortness of breath. I felt faint like I was going to pass out. It felt as if my heart rate had tripled.

Everything was gradual. I didn't go from feeling fine one moment and everything I just explained the next. It gradually built in intensity over about a 30 minute period. It peaked, stayed the same for a period of time and then gradually started decreasing. If I remember right, it started out with the chest pressure and the sensations that I felt in my arm.

Anyways, I don't know if men and women are different. I have heard they are but I think alot of it is just that what one person experiences during an attack may be something completely different for another. And many of the symptoms you never hear about so when it starts, I imagine some people don't realize what is actually happening, and many go into a denial mode because they don't want it to be happening. Having a heart attack doesn't *always* fit the pattern to what we are told.

Bottom line is, if you think you are having heart problems than there is a good chance you are, get it checked. Don't ignore it and don't try to make excuses. I did and the first Dr I went to prior to this happening did. I remember telling him a few months before I had the attack that my heart "hurt". He told me, a heart can't hurt that it doesn't have nerves. Of course, this was the same Dr that said I was too young to have heart problems (I was 45), I was a woman, and that I needed to stop "dwelling" on it. One heart attack and a stent and a quadruple bypass surgery three month later tells me I was not imagining it. After I had gone through the surgery and was on the road to recovery I asked the same question to my heart surgeon and he told me that it is entirely possible for a persons heart to "hurt". It is a muscle like any other muscle in your body and anytime a muscle is stressed it can hurt.

Sorry for the book... I just feel the more information *we* can share the better chance others won't have to go through what we whohave experienced this have.

Answer 3

As a healthcare provider it is a question and selection of answers like the ones I've read here that draws me to this site and inspires me to answer. First: Yes heart attack symptoms can be different for women. We call it the 'atypical symptoms of MI in women'. There are aspects that exist in the medical system that allows for womens complaints to be paid less attention by healthcare providers than complaints from men. Symptoms are more likely to be misdiagnosed as 'anxiety' in women. Also women are more likely to bear the symptoms without complaining than men are. All this results in women being more likely to die from an MI than men are. There are entire lectures in med school on this subject. As a provider I pay more attention to the vague complaints of the 40 year old woman with atypical symptoms. It's the prudent thing to do.

Answer 4

I'm sorry, that's just not true. The symptoms are the same. However, heart disease is incorrectly assumed to be a problem for just guys, so the symptoms are often taken to be something else. If you feel any two of the symptoms of a heart attack and you're at risk for a heart attackl, please get medical assistance immediately.

Answer 5

its same for everybody....why do you have to always try and say ur different...guys and girls are same...girls just have breasts and long hair and dont go bald and have a vagina...guys have flat chest and short hair and have a penis..everything else is same...a girls and guys orgasms are even the same even guys can have multiple orgasm...even girls have problem reaching their first then why worry about multiple guys atleast have their first every time....and heart attack syptoms are same...a girls heart and a guys heart are same...and the attack is same...why do you care anyway...i think your just tryna say girls are different...they are not....

Answer 6

well. i'm a woman and i had a major heart atttack. i began by getting very hot and sweaty, cold and clammy and had pain going down my left arm. so i would say it was the same as a man.

Answer 7

I have heard that too but I don't belive so in all cases.