What does a mild female heart attack or stroke look like? AIBU to panic?

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Panicking. Sat at dinner tonight having lovely conversation with my parents and suddenly my mum (69) grabs her left arm in pain, shooting pains down left arm and fingers gone numb for about a minute. Feeling returns and just says pins and needles, but her tongue feels funny and neck hurts. shes red and breathless, but often breathless as has Asthma and said I was making her anxious but fussing rather than her feeling breathless. Parents dismissed the whole episode, then seemed to get more worried and I insisted DH took mum to A&E (I'd had a glass of wine so better he drove). I'm now at home with kids and panicking now. Has anyone seen/ experienced this before?

same symptoms as male, can find you references if you want.
What did A&E say?

Definitely well worth a check over (and tonight).

www.templehealth.org/about/blog/heart-attack-symptoms-men-women-differences

Could be a mini stroke or a mild heart attack or something much more serious
No-one can tell you here

Is she at the hospital now?

I hope that you are ok, must be very worrying. She’s gone to the right place though. Big hugs

Think it was definitely the right call to get her checked out.
It could be heart related. It also could be something like a trapped nerve. Pain can make you breathless.
But you were definitely not wrong to insist on her being checked out.

Please try not to panic, it’s a good idea she’s gone to get checked over but it could be nothing. Fingers crossed you receive reassuring news very soon Op

Actually not the same as for a man - which is why women go undiagnosed.

:

What references can you find which states that male and female symptoms are the same? This is wrong, as the link posted by pp shows

A heart attack can be on and off for days and put down as indigestion. That's what my mum thought it was. Pain got progressively worse and she had emergency surgery.

Wishing your mum well OP.

My mum thought it was a tummy bug, v&d no pain. Heart attacks in women are not the same as men, and in diabetics are particularly difficult to diagnose.

The most common symptom of a female having a myocardial infarction ( heart attack ) is breathlessness. Symptoms are not the same as a male suffering an MI.
Going to A&E was the right decision. They will do all the necessary investigations and hopefully exclude MI

"It’s a common misconception that men and women experience different heart attack symptoms. While symptoms vary from person to person, there are no symptoms that women experience more or less often than men."

But hey, what would the British Heart Foundation know about it?

My BIL was the same. He'd had it five days before being sent to hospital.

@Ragged maybe they are underfunded and have not updated their web information in keeping with the other heart and stroke foundations...
canada www.heartandstroke.ca/heart-disease?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjvaYBhDlARIsAO8PkE3WsUCw6OhJLD3Ky8n-rSa0_-CMPEMA7KMVQkb4UZElwOt5Mqg5G_EaAgGXEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
usa www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/women.htm
europe www.escardio.org/The-ESC/Advocacy/women-and-cardiovascular-disease

From you description sounds like all have done the right thing in getting the correct tests. I work as a Paramedic, generally speaking women and men should be assessed in the same manner since heart problems can present with a variety of symptoms in either. Anecdotally I find women are less likely to present with chest pain but otherwise it's a combination of

• Short of breath
• collapse
• Dizzy
• Clammy/pale
• Abdominal pain
• nausea/vomit
• numbness into arms
• Pain in chest/back/jaw
• Palpitations + others.

Obviously sudden onset of chest pain grabs your attention first, but in the absence of chest pain it's normally a patient looking pale/clammy/unwell who's breathing quickly, looking a feeling sick

Whilst from the brief history you've given being sure it's not a serious cause (by going to A&E for further tests) is absolutely sensible, more likely though could be a simple muscular problem/trapped nerve with the pain exacerbating asthma/shortness of breath. Just to be clear - absolutely not trying to diagnose your mother from what you've said, just that there are other non-serious problems that can occur spontaneously and be quite uncomfortable.

I've not recognised a stroke causing pain in an arm before. Typically see weakness, numbness, stiffness or loss of coordination.

Hope all is fine!! Given her age typically there's an ECG & bloods on arrival, then bloods normally repeated about 4 hours later (i think, could be 2 hours not been in A&E for a while). If they're all clear and no other serious cause identified then GP to follow up if required... So even if it's not a life threatening problem all the appropriate rule out tests can take several hours so being a while isn't a bad sign.

Hope all goes well!

Hope all is okay - you did the right thing. Your mum needs to have a review with her asthma nurse at the very least as being often red and breathless because of asthma is not normal and means the asthma is not well controlled - might need to up her preventer dose.

@SleepyRich echo this. Troponin tests are still four hours :)

Thank you all. She was in A&E till late, ECG and bloods ruled out heart issues but been advised to now have further checks. Thanks for the advise/ support! I did read these whilst worrying away about her and it was helpful and reassuring.