Women’s symptoms of heart disease

[Twocustardtarts]

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8757223/Are-migraines-menopause-linked-cardiac-issues.html

Interesting article on how women’s symptoms of heart disease have been ignored/ mis diagnosed/dismissed because research was based on male patients.

I had no idea how different the causes of heart attacks were in men and women. Or the effects of menopause/loss of oestrogen.

It seems that men are the marker for most things, including drug trials.

It's grotesque how men are the default subjects in medical testing and design choices. I had no idea about the differences in heart attack symptoms until I read the book 'Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.'

Some of this is covered in the excellent 99% Invisible podcast episode Invisible Women

Shinypie
Thanks, I’m off to order a copy of invisible women. I was really shocked how womens symptoms have been dismissed as imaginary/hysterical because they weren’t the same as men’s.

As I’ve seen on other threads once you see the misogyny you can’t unsee it.

Think I’ve got a few weeks of elevated blood pressure coming up .

I’m the last person to make excuses for the patriarchy (old school radfem from the glory days of the 1970’s!), but part of the historical reason women tended to be left out of drug trials or medical research etc was the risk of a) cyclical hormone fluctuations affecting results, and b) the risk of undiagnosed pregnancy - not only affecting results but risking drug damage to the fetus.
Neither of these apply to post menopausal women though, and modern research methods should be sophisticated enough to compensate for hormonal variation.
As a medical student in the 1970’s, I was taught that some conditions present differently in women, including heart attacks - that instead of the classic male central chest pain, women could present with upper abdo pain, or have a “silent” infarct for example.
And now that more women than men are studying medicine, I imagine things will begin to improve.
So there is cause for hope!

I've added a woman's heart to my wish list, looks like a good book.

Especially useful to a young-ish me with cardiovascular ishoos

My colleague died of a heart attack a few years ago. She was only 57. With hindsight it was obvious she should have gone to the ER. She put her symptoms down to "stress", and she went on a long hike the next day.

She never came home.

I'm sorry to hear that royal

I've been having chest pain and refusing to go to A&E 😕 it's like stitch, under my left boob. I went recently for a possible TIA, two doctors and one consultant diagnosed a TIA, then the stroke consultant came in and told me I had no risk factors (I do, he didn't even ask) and it was a migraine. So I refuse to sit in A&E for two days to be told it's indigestion. My hypertension is attempting to be treated, but as yet is still high.
I'm 34, with a long long list of health problems already.