Tag: cardiology gender gap

Yentl’s bikini: Dr. Martha Gulati on women’s most deadly heart attacks

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters  

I’d love to believe that if both a man and a woman suffering the same type of serious heart attack showed up together at the same Emergency Department, their treatments and outcomes would be the same. I wish I could believe that, but as cardiologist Dr. Martha Gulati wrote recently(1):

“Despite progress, gaps still persist in how we treat women, and the impact on outcomes. Decades of tracking outcomes continue to show gaps in the treatment of women, and similar findings have been replicated throughout the world.”    .

Continue reading “Yentl’s bikini: Dr. Martha Gulati on women’s most deadly heart attacks” →

Why won’t doctors believe women?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 33 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters 

A woman in one of my Heart-Smart Women presentation audiences told me about a conversation she overheard in our local Emergency Department, in which the physician said to the (male) patient in the bed next to hers:

“All of your cardiac tests came back ‘normal’, but we’re going to admit you for observation just to make sure it isn’t your heart.”

That story tells us that (unlike your average woman – i.e. me! – with cardiac symptoms alarming enough to propel her to seek emergency care, but unlucky enough to have tests that look “normal”), a man who shows up with both cardiac symptoms and “normal” test results does not need to fight to be believed. Continue reading “Why won’t doctors believe women?” →

Fewer lights/sirens when a female heart patient is in the ambulance

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 37 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

emsI sometimes think that, during the years I’ve been writing about women’s heart disease research, diagnostics, treatment or outcomes, I’ve heard it all when it comes to women being under-diagnosed and under-treated (yes, sometimes under-treated even when appropriately diagnosed!)  I thought I was unshockable by now. But a study published in the journal, Women’s Health Issues (WHI) was indeed a shocker.(1)    .
 Continue reading “Fewer lights/sirens when a female heart patient is in the ambulance” →

Is ‘being nice’ hurting women?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 19 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters 

Imagine the reaction from Emergency Department staff to the woman I met at my Mayo Clinic training, the one who had been sent home from Emergency three days in a row despite her complaints of increasingly distressing cardiac symptoms. Each time she arrived there, she clearly declared the following to the Emergency physician, who continued to repeatedly dismiss her concerns:

“I don’t care what you say. SOMETHING is wrong with me!”

What a royal pain in the ass, staff may have muttered about her, sotto voce.

On her third visit, the physician recommended anti-anxiety medications. But on the fourth visit, on that fourth day, she was taken directly from the E.R. to the O.R. to undergo emergency coronary bypass surgery. Continue reading “Is ‘being nice’ hurting women?” →