In a class that I am taking this semester, I learned that heart attacks are the number one killer for women tends to be heart disease and heart attacks. The medical field uses the male body as a basis for medical study. This means that women’s bodies are seen as an abnormality and tend to have different side effects or symptoms to some medical problems than their male counterparts. Sometimes, doctors do not take women seriously when they believe something is wrong with them because their symptoms do not align with men’s symptoms for the problem that women are trying to explain to the doctors that they think it is.
One thing that really stuck out to me in class as we were learning this was the issue of heart attacks. Women, not only do doctors sometimes fail to understand your body, but so do yourselves. Women who are having heart attacks often fail to realize the symptoms are for heart attacks. They relate the symptoms to something else that we deal with every day. We brush them aside as if they are bad period pains that we have always been taught to push through the pain and continue about our day. However, if you push through the pain of a heart attack, you just might not make it.
There are common symptoms in heart attacks for men and women, but be sure to look at the differences and be informed so that you do not push your symptoms to the way side.
Men: 1. Substernal chest pressure/pain that radiates to the neck, jaw, arms, and back
2. sweating
3. nausea with or without vomiting
4. cold/clammy skin
For WOMEN:
1. generalized fatigue
2. confusion
3. nausea with or without vomiting
4. sudden onset shortness of breath with or without chest pressure or a burning sensation in the chest
Less common warning signs of heart attack:
5. shortness of breath
6. flu-like symptoms
7. dizziness
8. extreme fatique
9. brief loss of consciousness when the heart attack begins
Remember that your health is important and never to deny yourself or allow professionals to deny your need for medical attention. If you believe something is wrong, most likely something is. Seek help and take care of yourself. You only have one life to live and you should live it as long as you can!