American Heart Month: What Women Need to Know About Their Heart Attack Symptoms

February is American Heart Month, and one of the biggest pieces of heart health awareness has become the recognition that women have different symptoms than men, and, often, these symptoms are easy to mistake for other health conditions. 

Interventional cardiologist and vascular medicine specialist Enrique Hernandez, MD, of Advanced Vascular Cardiac & Veins in Miami, Florida, promotes heart health awareness at two locations. When it comes to heart attacks, he ensures that his patients know both the symptoms of heart disease and their personal risk level for it. 

If you’re a woman at risk of heart disease complications, here’s what you need to know about how heart attacks present in female patients. 

How heart attacks occur

Though the symptoms vary, heart attacks happen for the same reasons in women and men. Like any other muscle in your body, the heart relies on oxygen delivered through the blood. Heart attacks happen when the blood supply to part of the heart is blocked. 

Within minutes of losing fresh oxygen due to arterial blockage, heart muscle begins to die. The longer the blockage persists, the more tissue damage occurs, and this affects the efficiency with which the heart pumps. 

As well as arterial blockages, heart attacks can be triggered by coronary artery spasms, which can be triggered by cold, medications, or stress. 

What women need to know about their heart attack symptoms

The most common symptom of heart attacks for both women and men is chest pain. However, other signs of heart attacks in women are more likely to resemble symptoms of other conditions. 

Even chest pain has slight differences, with women being more likely to describe chest symptoms as tightness or pressure than men. It’s also possible to have a heart attack without pain in the chest.

These are some of the signs and symptoms of heart attack that are more likely for women to experience than men: 

• Pain in the jaw, neck, shoulder, upper back, or upper stomach area
• Pain in the arms, either one or both
• Dizziness or lightheadedness
• Shortness of breath
• Fatigue
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Indigestion
• Sweating

Women, more than men, are likely to exhibit heart attack symptoms when asleep or resting. Emotional stress may be a more common trigger for heart attacks in women. 

Risk factors for heart disease

While high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity are heart disease threats shared by women and men, women have unique health conditions that can raise their risk, as well as shared conditions that affect them more than their male counterparts.

Conditions that raise the risk of heart disease in women more than men: 

• Autoimmune conditions
• Inflammatory conditions
• Mental health factors like depression and stress
• Diabetes
• Genetic history
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Smoking

Unique female risk factors for heart disease: 

• Complications of pregnancy
• Menopause

Knowing your risk factors for heart disease means understanding your risk of heart attack better. 

When you have concerns about heart health and your risk factors, call or message one of  Advanced Vascular Cardiac & Veins’ two Miami, Florida,  locations for an examination and consultation with Dr. Hernandez and his team.