Women's Heart Health -- The Sex-Linked Differences in Calling 911

On October 20th at 8:00 AM, my mother started to experience symptoms of a heart attack. Despite the persistent symptoms, my mother decided to wait to see if the pain in her jaw and chest would go away. On October 20th at 10:10 AM my mother told me to call 911. When she had tried to lift her arm to open the door, she couldn’t lift her hand. On October 20th at 10:15 AM, as we were waiting for the paramedics to arrive, my mother told me she felt stupid. She was not the type of person to have a heart attack or stroke; she was healthy, and she said she felt like an idiot for calling emergency services. All I could think was why is she feeling embarrassed in such a serious situation? The paramedics left after they found everything to be normal and they diagnosed her symptoms as “anxiety.” My mother had waited 2 hours, until she was about to pass out, to call for help. Today, research is being done to recognize the gender disparities in symptoms, but years of male-centered medical care have left their impression on women’s health care. Women’s heart health today is plagued by this male-centered history, leaving women to hesitate on or downplay their symptoms.

Historically, women’s health research has been centered around reproductive systems and only that. Today, the American Heart Association lists cardiovascular disease as women’s number one health threat. Because of the lack of research done on female heart problems, women seek care less than men. In fact, in recent research done by Cambridge University, “...women under-recognize their symptoms and delay seeking care (on average by 2–3 hours). Women are also overrepresented in a third of AMI group that presents without chest pain (42% women vs. 21% men), 7 further delaying the initiation of definitive care.” The most commonly known symptoms of any heart problem is chest pain, which is true for men but not necessarily for women. From the data collected by Soffler at Cambridge University, “Both men and women with ACS present often with chest pain, but their descriptions of pain and associated symptoms may differ.”. I believe the differences in the descriptions of pain can be attributed to a history of unrecognized symptoms and the societal norms of what a heart attack looks like. The problem today is not that research is not being done regarding women’s symptoms, but that the common public lacks the knowledge to recognize their symptoms due to years of already being told what their symptoms could be, despite looking at sex based differences. The symptoms that the general public view as universal are actually the symptoms of men. Many people don’t even know that there are differences in symptoms between men and women.

The U.S Department of Health and Human Services has a campaign called Make The Call. Don’t Miss a Beat, that works to educate and empower women to seek help when they truly need it. The office of women’s health also has 10 steps to understanding the importance of heart attacks in women along with statistics talking more about this problem. Women should never “feel like an idiot” when seeking emergency services, especially when it comes to something as serious as heart health. Women’s heart health should be openly talked about to create an environment of inclusivity in the healthcare field.

Sources:

Soffler, Morgan, et al. “It’s Not All Chest Pain: Sex and Gender in Acute Care Cardiology.” Sex and Gender in Acute Care Medicine, edited by Alyson J. McGregor et al., Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp. 6–23. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1017/CBO9781107705944.004.

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