Heart attacks for women

[TiredandDizzy]

Name changed but regular poster - i dont want my husband to know all my secrets if I show him this thread 🤣I want to start by saying I am not having a heart attack but my anxious husband thinks I am 🙄 because I have a weird pressure on my chest and feel tired and dizzy. Probs a virus (though not covid I checked!).

It got me thinking though, what DOES a heart attack feel like for women?! I know it can be different than for men and I thought it's probably a good think to know! Has anyone here has one? What was it like? I'm not after morbid details by the way, more an education so I would know what to look out for in myself/loved ones as we get older. Thanks!

I think most medics would point out that A&E is for Accident or Emergency, so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be troubling a busy department with minor symptoms like this. A&E really should be a place of last resort, not for the "worried well".

Any chest pain / discomfort and / or shortness of breath is an emergency.

Yeah I’d get checked out OP. As others have said, heart attacks often go undiagnosed in women because the symptoms can vary wildly and present as other things. My aunt had one at 47 and only found out because my cousin practically forced her to A&E. My aunt thought it was indigestion and that she’d slept funny on her shoulder 🤯

@Hbh17 Are you a Doctor? Isn't the whole point she's suffering from chest pain?? That could be nothing, could be anxiety, could be indigestion but absolutely could be a heart attack as they present differently in a woman. Do you not think that might be classed as a medical emergency that only they can decide what it is...not a random person off the Internet who has neither questioned the lady nor done an example of her???

Examination not example!

I think most medics would consider chest pain and these symptoms, especially in a woman, would be a cause for concern and recommend getting checked out this morning.

Any medic who didn't consider chest pain with the additional symptoms as a concern would be a medic who is in the wrong job!

I was told by the ex fireman who taught our first aid course that he had been told it was like someone getting hold of the back of your bra and twisting it round and round.

Could you be anaemic ? It gave me those symptoms and more.

Symptoms can be the same as men but can also show as stomach or shoulder pains.

My grandma in her 60s was perfectly fine, waved goodbye to us after a visit then turned to my grandad and said 'my arm feels funny' and passed out, she died instantly.

If you have any symptoms that could even slightly suggest a heart problem you need to get them checked out.

pffffft. I'm not convinced that HAs in women are that different (on average). Men can have mild heart attacks without crushing chest pain, too.

fwiw, female friend has been checked out several times for chest pain. It's been pericarditis exacerbated by her anxiety. I perceive that she's been more harmed by the worry it might be a heart attack than reassured by the diagnosis.

I had a heart attack in 2005, had a very stressful couple of days. On the Sunday it presented as very heavy pressure on my chest with breathlessness and tiredness. Went to my GP on the Monday and asked if I, was becoming asthmatic. She did an ecg and after looking at the printout called an ambulance, I ended up in hospital. I would get this checked out. Woman's heart attacks often present differently to mens.

Oh my, why so people post this dangerous drivel

I think for women, heart attacks definitely (sometimes) present differently. I had a ruptured appendix a few years ago, and before I was scanned they were treating me for a potential heart attack as a precaution. Those symptoms were a very fast pulse, abdominal pain (but not especially bad), a temperature and no appetite for several days. All that was a whacking great infection of course ... But afterwards I was told that some heart attacks in women present in that (and other) unusual ways. They were trialling a new protocol for women with these symptoms, so had it been a heart attack I would have been lucky. I was lucky anyway, that they scanned me very quickly, as I had sepsis.

Thank you NHS.

I'd get checked out in A&E.

The statistics show women are more likely to have mild symptoms. Men are more likely to have crushing pain.

Heart attacks in women do indeed present differently. My mum was fobbed off for a week with dizziness, vomiting and pain in her neck, she saw a Dr twice and was told it was a virus. A friend thankfully decided she looked so dreadful, she took her to A&E, once there she went into cardiac arrest! She needed a heart bypass ans was incredibly lucky to be alive.

On later seeing her GP she was told they weren’t responsible as it was very difficult to diagnose a woman having a heart attack. (She went on to make an offical complaint about the way they were not willing to learn from their mistakes)

OP please at the very least phone 111.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/costochondritis/

Alternative diagnosis.

I was diagnosed with this after banding chest pain that caused hyperventilation and subsequent associated nausea and vomiting. The pain and issues with breathing made me very dizzy.

I called 111 who sent an ambulance, the ECG they did at my house didn't show a heart issue, but the paramedics were very concerned about the symptoms.

Either call 111 or get yourself checked out at A&E, don't mess about with chest pain, get a professional diagnosis.

Some one I know felt dizzy , out of breath whilst doing housework. Carried on with her life for a couple of days. Still felt ill , went to hospital, had had a heart attack. Seriously get yourself checked out.

You are both wrong & dangerous. Stick to threads where your posts aren't likely to Jill someone.

I had a few days of chest pain/shoulder pain before getting help (stupidly, I'd add), and I had an awful sense of impending doom. By the time DH dragged me to a A & E kicking and screaming, they took me straight in for an ECG and then through to majors. My ECG was abnormal (only because of the pain I was in luckily) but I had extensive tests and was eventually diagnosed with Tietze's syndrome which is a form of Costochondritis.

While I was there, they told me to always get chest pain checked because women feel heart attacks very differently to men. I had to go in a few times after when my TS flared up, and they were always unstintingly kind and put me straight onto an ECG machine/did bloods.

Get it checked.

You're current symptoms are the same as what I had last year, I rang my docs and couldn't get past the triage nurse who said I had vertigo, I've had vertigo all my life so I knew it wasn't that. I said stuff it and went to A & E, good job too as I was having a stroke.

Please ring 111, see a doc or go to A & E

You are wrong, and this is a dangerous thing to have posted, and you could literally kill someone with this advice. I’m not even trying to be dramatic. Someone could be reading this thread now or at any point in the future and be put off making a life-saving visit to A&E because your post makes them feel too guilty to go.

’Most medics’ only have to hear the words ‘chest pain’ or ‘shortness of breath’ and they will insist that you go straight to hospital immediately to get checked out. They would far, far rather see a patient with worrying symptoms who turns out to be fine than have a patient drop dead because they were too worried about making a fuss.

I work in medical receiving so see many people with chest pain. Women often have a vague indigestion type pain.

Most chest pains are not cardiac in nature but they need to have an ECG and 2 blood tests to rule it out. We don't take it lightly and no one would ever call you a time waster. It's something we can rule out in a few hours. The risks are too high to leave it to wait and see. You need to get someone to take your kids and get to hospital.

Well said @FirewomanSam, @Hbh17 - you should ask for your, frankly, dangerous comment be removed, and then maybe ask yourself why you felt the need to post such crap.

Well thank you for your advice, I called and they sent a ambulance, in the coronary unit now having tests. Bloody hell, I honestly wouldn't have come in so thank you all.

Well done @TiredandDizzy, I hope it turns out to be nothing and if that’s the case, you absolutely must NOT feel guilty or worry about wasting anyone’s time. That’s what they’re there for and nobody will be anything but delighted if it turns out you’re completely fine.