Heart Disease Feels Different to Women

Coronary artery disease is the number one cause of death in women. According to the Women's
Heart Foundation, more than twice as many women die from cardiovascular disease as from all
forms of cancer combined. And often heart disease is under-diagnosed in women. While heart
disease doesn't discriminate against women, unfortunately, heart disease diagnostics and
physicians often do. In a study in Washington state, of patients admitted to the emergency room
with symptoms of heart disease who qualified for the clot busting drug TPA, only 55% of
eligible women received the drug, compared with 78% of the men.
Treadmill tests are often inaccurate in women, but diagnostics improve for treadmill tests in
combination with nuclear imaging involving thallium. Different treadmill results correspond to
different phases of the menstrual cycle, use of birth control pills, and higher incidence of mitral
valve prolapse, (a fairly common condition of the heart's mitral valve) in women.
The medical profession is guilty of treating women like men when it comes to procedures like
bypass surgery, and of treating women like neurotic worriers when it comes to diagnosing
cardiac disease. Your best strategy is to find a doctor who takes you seriously, and if you need to
go to the ER with cardiac symptoms, have a trusted friend or family member meet you there to
help you speak up for yourself. Try to have an appointment to your doctor and open up to
him/her clearly what have you feel. Open communication between the patient and the doctor is
very essential in treatment-healing process.