I’m female and had a heart attack at age 51 - AMA

[Bunnyfuller]

It’s well documented that symptoms of heart attacks are often very different for women….very true for me.

have been investigated for absorbtion issues (coeliacs)?

My mum died of a heart attack aged 51 20 years ago. She called a doctor out in the night who misdiagnosed her and gave her an injection for pain relief in her shoulder. She didn’t look like a heart attack patient, slim and relatively young (though a smoker).The next next day she visited her doctors surgery where eventually she had an ecg and discovered she’d had a heart attack. She was taken to hospital by ambulance, but had another big heart attack and didn’t survive. If only she’d received the right treatment the first time she sought medical help, things may have been different.
i’m sorry to read of your heart attack and women need to be more aware of the different symptoms they experience, I’m so pleased you got treatment and survived. Keep healthy.

@greenacrylicpaint Yes, investigated and positive for coeliac so gluten free and non processed diet. Nothing else found in the digestive tract. Also b12 was down to less than 80 last year so had a course of injections but they didn't continue despite that being the medical pathway. I'm on immune suppression (may inhibit bone marrow blood cell production) for something probably caused by the anaemia but still the advice is to take tablets despite extreme side effects and numbers barely rise.

I can't understand why with my complex history they won't treat my anemia proactively to protect against cvd? I'm sure it would be cheaper in the long run.

My friend, aged 61, had a heart attack last month & died after the paramedics had been out & told her to go to bed & try & get some sleep. Hugely stressful job, former smoker, somewhat overweight: size 18 & average height.

Thanks for the thread, OP. This issue needs to be publicised.

This is awful. Did the paramedics do an ECG?

No

That's awful.

Yes, devastating. She was an amazing woman.

Thank you for sharing.. glad you. Are all OK.
I am a GP and missing heart attacks in woman is one of my fears!
I find young cardiology registrars can be not understanding of this when I ring them up! There is a local bloke cardiologist who is great at seeing woman and a local female cardiologist who isn’t!
Women do have different , subtle symptoms.
Late 50’s now, overweight, Mum had heart attack at my age so I take a statin, do lots Pilates and recently stopped drinking alcohol. I also work part time and am lucky to do this.

💐.

Thanks for this. I am really stressed that maybe I have had a heart attack - severe indigestion/heartburn episodes in recent months and some aches in my arm that I don't know if they are imagined or not, but now I have the fear it was heart attacks as my dad had one aged 50 and I am mid 40s and overweight. I am seeing GP about this next week but am thinking of booking a private echocardiogram for reassurance but am so scared of the results (even though I know it is better to know if so).

Thankyou for this, I'm so sorry for those of you who have experienced heart attacks, and those who have lost loved ones.

It's very clear that women's symptoms are still very much misunderstood/ignored by the medical profession as a whole, and women are unnecessarily dying as a result.

I'm seeing a private cardiologist on Tuesday (I'll be waiting forever if I wait for the NHS). Full on palpitations since February - they're rather odd as they are kicked off by reclining or lying down, or eating/drinking, and resolved by standing up or being throwing up. I've just been diagnosed with a hiatus hernia so am hoping this is the answer, but it's small, and my cardiac symptoms feel "big". I've seen a doc 3 times about them now and had ECGs (one of which showed ectopics) only to be dismissed every time. I even mentioned a feeling in my throat, only to be told it's globus hystericus (it's not, it's not a "lump" feeling for a start).

I'm exasperated with their attitude. It's made me revisit previous medical treatment, for example, I had a major surgery on my leg a few years ago after an injury didn't heal correctly - an upper tibial osteotomy and bone graft (harvesting bone from my femur, cutting a wedge out of the top of my tibia, filling it with the bone and screwing a titanium rod to it ... just so you can get an idea how full on it was!). I was sent home with no painkillers at all, and when I was discharged the effects of the nerve block they gave me during the op hadn't worn off, so I was blissfully unaware of what was to come. I was in agony within hours - the worst pain of my life - DH had to do a mercy dash in the middle of the night back to the hospital to pick up oramorph. Conversely, DH had day surgery for a laparoscopic umbilical hernia repair recently (don't get me wrong, not a walk in the park I'm sure), he was sent home with a plethora of painkillers, including opiates.

Anyway, sorry going totally off topic - I'm just bloody angry to hear about those of you that have been dismissed so easily and suffered as a result. It's hardly news that women experience different symptoms to men, but we STILL get ignored or substandard care.

Thanks for starting this thread @Bunnyfuller. I’m glad you got help and are ok now.
My mum had very similar symptoms, she even went to her GP, but was told she had a virus.

A friend who happened to be a paramedic called in on her, didn’t like what he saw and called an ambulance, thank goodness. Within minutes of getting into A&E Mum went into cardiac arrest, she is one lucky woman that her fried happened to pop in that morning!

As an aside she’d moved house the week before her symptoms started and had rehung a new door on her own. She was only 67 at the time 😂

I've asked my mum about hers and even the ambulance and A&E staff didn't think it was a heart attack, she said they were lovely though. Then the blood tests came back positive and she had a stent 48hrs later.
She had been under a lot of stress too. But she'd upped her exercise as she'd been feeling unwell for a while.....

Great AMA

Thanks for this thread, I've been reading with great interest as my mum had 2 heart attacks in her 60's, a few years apart, and both times she had indigestion/heartburn/diarrhea symptoms in the weeks leading up to them. She had stents fitted as a result and seems to be ok now.

Due to my mum's symptoms I'm very aware of anything out of the ordinary in myself. Over the past few months I have experienced quite a few episodes of indigestion/heartburn mostly in the middle of the night which wake me up, and not after any over indulging, just eating my normal diet. I've also had pain in the left side of my jaw/neck/upper back/leg for no apparent reason which comes & goes. I'm 45 and in reasonably good health although about 2 stone over where my weight was pre Covid.

I don't feel like there is anything wrong but they are potential indicators of a heart attack. If I wanted to get checked out what do I say to the Dr? Can they tell if something has happened even if I'm not experiencing anything at the time I go in?