Tag: misdiagnosis of heart disease

14 reasons to be glad you’re a man when you’re having a heart attack

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 19 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters  ♥ Updated May 1, 2022

I just finished reading a truly weird rant on another website, written by a man decrying the “sexism” of society because all of our male doctors are now focused only on women’s heart disease – while apparently ignoring men completely.  It turns out he’s not alone in his misinformation: see also Women’s Heart Health: Why it’s NOT a Zero Sum Game.

It would surely be the fantasy dream of every female heart attack survivor if this man were actually correct about all that attention women’s heart disease is allegedly attracting.  The frightening reality instead is that since 1984, the differences between men and women’s cardiac diagnoses, treatments and outcomes has continued to grow.

In the interests of enlightening the unconscious among us about All Things Cardiac, I am happy to point out an assortment of gender differences if you find yourself having a heart attack:  Continue reading “14 reasons to be glad you’re a man when you’re having a heart attack” →

“Women’s Heart Attack Myth”? Revisiting the controversial Canadian study

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 15 Comments

heart man woman cards

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Media coverage of a study presented at the annual Canadian Cardiovascular Congress last month has left me and other Heart Sisters gobsmacked.  One heart attack survivor told me:

“This ‘research’ has set back women’s awareness of heart attack symptoms by a full decade!”

What could have inspired a reaction like this?  First, there are the media headlines, “The Heart Attack Myth”.   Continue reading ““Women’s Heart Attack Myth”? Revisiting the controversial Canadian study” →

How does it really feel to have a heart attack? Women survivors answer that question

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 93 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

Having a heart attack felt nothing like I thought it would feel.   For one thing, unlike sudden cardiac arrest, in which the heart stops beating and you stop breathing, during my heart attack (myocardial infarction), my heart continued beating, and I was walking, talking and conscious throughout despite horrific symptoms – so how could I possibly be having a heart attack?

Like most women, I’d never really thought about my heart – except maybe when running up that killer Quadra Street hill with my running group. Yet heart disease kills six times more women than breast cancer each year (in fact, it kills more women than all forms of cancer combined).

Women need to know all the potential symptoms of a heart attack – both typical and atypical. And by the way, I’ve stopped using the word “atypical“ to describe any non-chest pain symptom that women experience during a heart attack, because as paramedic and documentary filmmaker (“A Typical Heart“) Cristina D’Alessandro likes to say: 

“Why are our cardiac symptoms called ‘atypical’ when women are more than half the population?”

I asked some female survivors to share their very first symptoms. Their heart attack stories may surprise you. If you need help translating some of the heart jargon, visit my patient-friendly jargon-free glossary of cardiology terms and abbreviations.

Read their stories

Women’s cardiac care: is it gender difference – or gender bias?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

woman man novelties

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

At the WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium last fall, Mayo Clinic cardiologists told us that, when it comes to women, heart disease is much more than an equal opportunity health threat.  Women with heart disease are underdiagnosed (and undertreated even when accurately diagnosed) compared to men presenting with the same condition.  And we also have more deadly outcomes compared to men.

Did you know that more women than men die of heart disease each year in North America? What I found particularly appalling was a 2005 American Heart Association study that found only 8% of family doctors were aware of this fact, and (even worse!) only 17% of cardiologists were aware.

Here are some other examples that may help to explain gender bias in diagnosis and treatment of women’s heart disease: Continue reading “Women’s cardiac care: is it gender difference – or gender bias?” →