7 atypical heart attack symptoms in women

Beyond the classic and most common symptom among men (sharp pain in the chest, similar to a vice, which radiates to the left arm and jaw), women subject to a heart attack can also experience other atypical symptoms, which are added to the sharp chest pain reflecting sudden acute blockage of the heart artery and sometimes even anticipating it.

Symptoms are often the same for both sexes, but the signs of a female heart attack can be different from those of men in almost half of cases before the age of 65:

– feeling of tiredness or deep tiredness;
– progressive shortness of breath with exercise;
– sudden feeling of tightness in the chest;
– sharp pain in the upper back, between the shoulder blades or in the neck;
– palpitations;
– cold sweats;
– recurrent digestive symptoms: nausea, discomfort or heartburn, etc.

Simple tiredness shouldn't be a concern in this regard, but you need to be particularly vigilant if you have several cardiovascular risk factorsthat is: smoking, stress, sedentary lifestyle, high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, etc.

The French Association is raising attention to this aspect of female heart health Act for the heart of womenfocused on the prevention of cardiovascular diseases in women, on the guidelines released by Women's Cardiovascular Healthcare Foundation.

If you suspect you have symptoms of a myocardial infarction, it is essential to immediately call emergency services (118 or 112), specifying the symptoms. They will then confirm or not the hypothesis of a heart attack ECG and the dosage of specific enzymes in the blood, detected with a venous sampling.

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Until menopause, women have a lower risk of cardiac events than men, thanks to hormone protection. However, according to data from the Italian Society for cardiovascular prevention (Siprec), women die from heart attacks more than men (43% compared to 38%). Furthermore, when the cardiac pathology occurs, it is often already at an advanced stage and the prognosis is worse than in men.

In every phase of women's lives in which hormonal alterations occur, that is pregnancy, premenopause And menopauseone is recommended evaluation of cardiovascular function.

Prevention of heart health for women who have no symptoms or congenital heart pathologies it starts at 30-40 years of age, as for the prevention of female tumors. In fact, pathologies of the heart and cardiovascular system affect women three times more than all female tumors combined (breast, uterus, lung).


Source: Vanity Fair

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