Women have heart attacks too. Understanding risks, symptoms and how to save yourself

Lori Sepich smoked for years and sometimes failed to take her blood pressure medication. But she never thought she would have a heart attack.

The possibility “just didn’t sit well with me,” said the 64-year-old from Memphis, Tennessee, who suffered two 13 years apart.

She is far from alone. In the United States, more than 60 million women live with cardiovascular disease, which includes heart disease as well as stroke, heart failure and atrial fibrillation. And despite the myth that heart attacks mainly strike men, women are also vulnerable.

In the United States, one in five women die each year from cardiovascular disease, including 37,000 from a heart attack.

Cardiovascular disease is “the leading cause of death in women. It will affect you or someone you know,” said Dr. Sharonne Hayes, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “Knowing what to do if you have heart attack symptoms and taking action if you do is really important.”

There are several ways everyone can reduce their risks.

The American Heart Association created a list called “The 8 Essentials of Life”: eat better, quit smoking, sleep healthy, be more active, control your cholesterol levels and manage your weight, blood sugar and blood pressure.

Dr. Stacey Rosen, president of the association, advises getting regular checkups to discuss these preventative measures, monitor your health and discuss any family history of heart problems.

Doctors also suggest discussing risk factors that uniquely or disproportionately affect women.

Women are more likely to have autoimmune diseases like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, which cause inflammation that can increase the risk of heart disease. They are also more likely to suffer from depression, which is associated with inflammation and unhealthy behaviors like staying in bed.

Other conditions associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease are a history of high blood pressure or diabetes during pregnancy, miscarriage or stillbirth. Hot flashes and night sweats during menopause have also been linked to an increased risk of high blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors.

When people think of heart attacks, many imagine a middle-aged man suddenly clutching his heart and falling to the ground.

But in reality, Hayes said, “it probably won’t be one of those Hollywood heart attacks.”

Chest pain or discomfort is a common symptom, but far from the only one.

“What’s different about women is that they are more likely than men to have other symptoms,” Rosen said.

These include back pain, shortness of breath, cold sweats, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, feeling anxious, jaw pain, and tingling fingers.

Experts aren’t sure why symptoms differ between men and women, but some research suggests physiological differences could play a role.

Another difference: symptoms may appear a little more subtly in women than in men. Hayes hears a common refrain among patients: “I felt the symptom and it waxed and waned a little over time, but I knew something was wrong.” »

“If you think there’s a chance you’re having a heart attack, that’s when you call 911,” Rosen said, adding that it’s better to “err on the side of worrying rather than downplaying something that could be quite serious.”

Doctors recommend taking an ambulance to the hospital, which is better equipped to handle emergency situations than urgent care centers or a doctor’s office.

Any delay in obtaining appropriate care could be harmful or even fatal.

“If you wait too long,” Rosen said, “the damage can be greater.”

When Sepich had her first heart attack, she waited too long. She had largely been in denial about her heart problems since being diagnosed with severe, hereditary high blood pressure at the age of 17.

On Easter Sunday 2005, she woke up with extreme pressure in her chest, nausea and pain radiating down her arms.

“I chose to ignore those signs that day because I was absolutely in shock,” she said. “I was scared.”

She attended mass and a family lunch and went to work the next day. She eventually went to the emergency room at her doctor’s request, where she had six stents inserted and spent a week in the hospital.

She acted more quickly on her second heart attack and had another stent inserted after her cardiologist discovered a near-complete blockage in the heart’s largest artery.

Sepich now controls his blood pressure, hasn’t smoked in more than two decades and exercises almost every day.

She urges other women to be honest with themselves about heart disease.

“I could justify my actions through denial. I could just say, ‘Oh, it won’t hurt you,'” Sepich said. “Well, it hurts you. It could kill you.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.