Heart disease is generally considered a male-dominated disease, but it is the number one killer of both men and women. According to statistics provided by the American Heart Association, 1 in 4 women in the United States dies of heart disease, whereas only 1 in 30 dies of breast cancer. The signs and symptoms of a heart attack vary considerably, but some notable patterns do exist. These patterns fall into three categories: typical, atypical and pre-heart attack, or prodromal, symptoms. Atypical and prodromal symptoms are more common in women.
Typical Symptoms
Chest pain is the most common symptom of a heart attack for both men and women; however, women often do not experience the sharp, stabbing chest pain characteristically described by male patients. Generally, women explain this symptom as chest pressure or tightness rather than pain, and therefore they often ignore this sign of a heart attack. Additionally, chest discomfort is not a symptom that is always present in women, which can make a heart attack difficult to recognize. A 2003 study published in "Circulation" found that 43 percent of the women studied did not experience any chest pain, yet this symptom remains a key for diagnosing cardiac complications.
Research published in 2008 in the "American Journal of Critical Care" revealed that the three most frequently reported symptoms of a heart attack in men and women are chest pain, shortness of breath and unusual fatigue. While chest pain and shortness of breath are considered typical symptoms of a heart attack, the researchers determined that women and physicians consider unusual fatigue an atypical symptom despite evidence supporting its commonplace occurrence in women.
Atypical Symptom
Atypical symptoms include nausea, vomiting, indigestion, weakness, unusual fatigue, dizziness and light-headedness. Dr. Holli DeVon demonstrated that women who had heart attacks reported the symptoms of unusual fatigue, palpitations, nausea, numbness of the hands and indigestion at significantly higher rates than men. This finding suggests that these symptoms may be typical for women rather than atypical in general. Because these symptoms are considered atypical, they often receive less attention from women and physicians and are more likely to go unrecognized as warning signs of a heart attack than typical symptoms.
Pre-Heart Attack
Typical and atypical symptoms are present during a heart attack, but prodromal symptoms occur in the weeks or months before a heart attack. According to Dr. Jean McSweeney, 96 percent of women report experiencing prodromal symptoms in the months leading up to their heart attacks. Shortness of breath and sleep disturbances were commonly recorded prodromal symptoms, but the most frequently cited symptom was unusual fatigue, which occurred in 73 percent of the women. If recognized, unusual fatigue can be a strong indicator of a potential heart attack in women.
References
- "Circulation"; Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics---2010 Update: A Report from the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee; Donald Lloyd-Jones, M.D.; 2010
- "Circulation"; Women's Early Warning Symptoms of Acute Myocardial Infarction; Jean C. McSweeney, Ph.D.; 2003
- "American Journal of Critical Care"; Symptoms Across the Continuum of Acute Coronary Syndromes: Differences Between Women and Men; Holli A. DeVon, Ph.D.; 2008
- "Cardiovascular Critical Care"; Racial Differences in Women's Prodromal and Acute Symptoms of Myocardial Infarction; Jean C. McSweeney, Ph.D.; 2010
