The symptoms, the perception of having a heart attack and heart disease is different in a woman, compared to men.
One in every four Americans die due to heart disease and every year it peaks to about 610,000 deaths according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though it is a leading cause for both genders, the way they respond and how they manifest symptoms, differ.
‘Two-thirds of women never show any advance signs of a heart disease and many do not feel the crushing pain during a heart attack.’
Roughly two-thirds of women never show any advance signs and suddenly die of coronary heart disease. They do not feel that crushing, fall-over kind of pain during a heart attack. Physiologically, men and women have different hormones, and blood vessels respond to those hormones. Women have cyclical hormones because of menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. After menopause, they have more incidents of high blood pressure.
"Women will describe a discomfort, or they will have pain in their jaws or necks," said Annabelle Santos Volgman, a professor of medicine at Chicago’s Rush College of Medicine and medical director of the Rush Heart Center for Women. "They’ll have nausea or just not feel well. They have more vague symptoms than men."
Source-Medindia