Did you know that women are more likely to call an ambulance for their husband’s or father’s heart attack than for their own, studies show, but with heart attack symptoms often different for women what do we need to know?
Ask most women what the leading cause of death for women in Ireland is and they will probably say breast cancer. It isn’t. Women are almost six times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease (heart attack and stroke) than breast cancer and a study by the Polish Registry of Acute Coronary Syndromes last year shows that women will dial 999 for their husband’s or father’s heart attack but not for their own. This means that they are often not treated within the optimum time frame and this delay in getting to the emergency department can lead to poorer outcomes.
Even younger women can have heart attacks and this is the cohort that puts off calling emergency services, perhaps because they don’t expect such a thing to be happening at their age or perhaps because the symptoms of heart attack in women differ from the “clutching the chest” kind of pain that men experience.
Medical director of the Irish Heart Foundation Dr Angie Brown says we all need to be more aware of those symptoms, so that we can act quickly.
“While cardiovascular disease is one of the biggest killers of women in Ireland, research carried out by the Irish Heart Foundation showed that less than one in five Irish women were aware of this,” she says.
“It can be very hard to diagnose and that’s why heart disease and heart attack is often missed in women.”
Rather than the classic version of heart attack where someone is seen clutching their chest, symptoms of a heart attack in women can be quite vague.
“They can include nausea, tiredness, shortness of breath, back pain or tightness in the jaw rather than the more familiar scenario of a crushing pain in the chest that shoots down one arm. That’s why we are advising women experiencing these symptoms to get to the emergency department quickly,” Dr Brown states.
Karen Ward from Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, is one of the ambassadors for the Go Red fundraising campaign and has a dramatic story to tell. While she had a congenital heart condition called aortic stenosis (a heart murmur) from childhood it was only through regular check ups that she discovered that she had serious heart problems.
Karen Ward.
At the age of 46, Karen was told that without an operation she had only a 50% chance of being alive in five years’ time.
She had open-heart surgery in December 2018 because her aortic valve had narrowed, preventing blood from flowing freely. Back doing mini-marathons six months later Karen now advises women to look after their heart health. This is her story:
“When I was born my mother was told I had a heart murmur and I was checked each year until I was 12 or 13, but for some reason I fell off the radar then.
“It was only when I had my first child when I was 20 that it became an issue. Before the birth the cardiologist I was sent to said, ‘Your heart is roaring’.
The cardiologist explained that I had a bicuspid valve so instead of having three compartments to my valve I only had two
“He was describing the abnormal heart sound (crescendo-decrescendo) caused by the murmur. I remember being put on antibiotic cover for two weeks.
“The same protocol followed my two subsequent pregnancies and I had a check up every year from then on.
“In 2014, at one of these check ups, the cardiologist explained that I had a bicuspid valve so instead of having three compartments to my valve I only had two so the valve was under pressure as it had to pump more to get the blood to go through it.
I had six monthly scans and check ups from then on
“The hole was narrowing over time and putting my heart under pressure. I had six monthly scans and check ups from then on where the doctors watched the measurement of this valve.
“Looking back, doctors think that my fitness – I was running three times a week and attending a gym – may have masked any symptoms I was having.
“It was a bit of a shock in July being told that I needed open-heart surgery to fix the problem because there was no medication that could help. An angiogram was booked for September and the surgery was timetabled for before Christmas.
I had written letters in case I didn’t make it through and told my daughters where they were
“When the operation finally happened – it had been cancelled twice due to demand for ICU beds – I cried from here to Dublin.
“I had written letters in case I didn’t make it through and told my daughters where they were. I kept wondering whether or not would I come home.
“The surgery took over seven hours. They keep you asleep that day and wake you up the next. It was a shock waking up to feeling so sore. I felt like I’d literally been hit by a bus.
“Every little movement meant pain. I had hopped up on the table the morning before. Now everything hurt – movement, a cough, a sneeze.
“I was in hospital for a week and felt very weak for about a month afterwards but, like the surgeon said, after six weeks I was able to walk a couple of kilometres a day.
“I went back to work at the end of February and I was back running in March. I ran the mini marathon with my daughter and colleagues in June 2019, six months after open-heart surgery and we raised over €1,000 for the Irish Heart Foundation. It was very emotional stepping over the line when I thought of everything that had happened in the previous year.
“While I would have said that I had no symptoms before the operation I know now that running is a lot easier for me, breathing wise and I have more energy than I had before.
“I’m only taking a cholesterol tablet and an aspirin each day now and that’s it.
The scar on my chest is very visible...but I don't hide it
“The scar on my chest is very visible as the whole sternum or breastbone is opened from the V of the neck to the bottom of the ribcage but I don’t hide it. It’s because of it that I’m still here.
“People coming into the pharmacy sometimes comment if they’ve had something similar done. One woman said, ‘I see you’re part of the zipper club’. If it was as easy as a zipper it would be great.
“My key message for any woman reading this would be to have your check-ups. I didn’t think I had symptoms.
“I think us ladies are very busy and are very good at putting everyone else first but it is very scary when you read that one woman in four will die from cardiovascular disease.
“I think women put the symptoms down to other things like menopause or they feel exhausted and they think it’s from running round looking after kids.
“Symptoms of cardiovascular disease in women can be very different – that’s what we need to remember. I spoke with a woman who had a heart attack.
“She spoke of waking up with a strange kind of nausea and was violently sick. An hour later she had a heart attack.
“Another woman I spoke with had pain across her shoulders and down into the middle of her back, not really to the front. There is a lot of different things it could be put down to unfortunately so it’s important to be aware.
“The care I got was amazing. Open-heart surgery is a massive operation – they stop your heart and you’re put on a by-pass machine – so you have to be so thankful for all the surgeons and staff who do this every day. “
Know your bodyKnow the symptoms of heart attack in womenHave regular check-ups Don’t delay calling 999 if you have the symptoms mentioned. Women are more likely than men to have heart attack symptoms unrelated to chest pain, such as:
Neck, jaw, shoulder, upper back or abdominal discomfort.Shortness of breath.Pain in one or both arms.Nausea or vomiting.Sweating.Light-headedness or dizziness.Unusual fatigue.Indigestion.“The Irish Heart Foundation wants to empower women to live longer, healthier lives and the good news is that cardiovascular disease is preventable,” says Dr Brown. “Eighty per cent of premature death from this disease is preventable so awareness is key.”
Note: Having five or more children is associated with a 30% increased risk of heart disease – the major cause of heart attacks – as well as a 25% increased risk of stroke. This was shown in a Cambridge University study.
“The physical stress put on the body with the increasing circulation volume of blood when you are pregnant causes increased cardiac output so the heart has to work much harder,” Dr Brown said.
“As suggested in this study, women with lots of children have no time for themselves and are perhaps more likely to ignore symptoms and less likely to get checked out. This research reiterates how important it is for everyone to keep an eye on their health, especially busy parents.”
You can get involved by organising a coffee morning or a “pay to wear red today” day in your workplace or home during the month of February, for example, and sending the proceeds to the Irish Heart Foundation you will be helping the organisation keep hearts beating round the country. To sign up visit www.GoRed.ie
For more information about heart health see irishheart.ie
Did you know that women are more likely to call an ambulance for their husband’s or father’s heart attack than for their own, studies show, but with heart attack symptoms often different for women what do we need to know?
Ask most women what the leading cause of death for women in Ireland is and they will probably say breast cancer. It isn’t. Women are almost six times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease (heart attack and stroke) than breast cancer and a study by the Polish Registry of Acute Coronary Syndromes last year shows that women will dial 999 for their husband’s or father’s heart attack but not for their own. This means that they are often not treated within the optimum time frame and this delay in getting to the emergency department can lead to poorer outcomes.
Even younger women can have heart attacks and this is the cohort that puts off calling emergency services, perhaps because they don’t expect such a thing to be happening at their age or perhaps because the symptoms of heart attack in women differ from the “clutching the chest” kind of pain that men experience.
Medical director of the Irish Heart Foundation Dr Angie Brown says we all need to be more aware of those symptoms, so that we can act quickly.
“While cardiovascular disease is one of the biggest killers of women in Ireland, research carried out by the Irish Heart Foundation showed that less than one in five Irish women were aware of this,” she says.
“It can be very hard to diagnose and that’s why heart disease and heart attack is often missed in women.”
Rather than the classic version of heart attack where someone is seen clutching their chest, symptoms of a heart attack in women can be quite vague.
“They can include nausea, tiredness, shortness of breath, back pain or tightness in the jaw rather than the more familiar scenario of a crushing pain in the chest that shoots down one arm. That’s why we are advising women experiencing these symptoms to get to the emergency department quickly,” Dr Brown states.
Karen Ward from Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, is one of the ambassadors for the Go Red fundraising campaign and has a dramatic story to tell. While she had a congenital heart condition called aortic stenosis (a heart murmur) from childhood it was only through regular check ups that she discovered that she had serious heart problems.
Karen Ward.
At the age of 46, Karen was told that without an operation she had only a 50% chance of being alive in five years’ time.
She had open-heart surgery in December 2018 because her aortic valve had narrowed, preventing blood from flowing freely. Back doing mini-marathons six months later Karen now advises women to look after their heart health. This is her story:
“When I was born my mother was told I had a heart murmur and I was checked each year until I was 12 or 13, but for some reason I fell off the radar then.
“It was only when I had my first child when I was 20 that it became an issue. Before the birth the cardiologist I was sent to said, ‘Your heart is roaring’.
The cardiologist explained that I had a bicuspid valve so instead of having three compartments to my valve I only had two
“He was describing the abnormal heart sound (crescendo-decrescendo) caused by the murmur. I remember being put on antibiotic cover for two weeks.
“The same protocol followed my two subsequent pregnancies and I had a check up every year from then on.
“In 2014, at one of these check ups, the cardiologist explained that I had a bicuspid valve so instead of having three compartments to my valve I only had two so the valve was under pressure as it had to pump more to get the blood to go through it.
I had six monthly scans and check ups from then on
“The hole was narrowing over time and putting my heart under pressure. I had six monthly scans and check ups from then on where the doctors watched the measurement of this valve.
“Looking back, doctors think that my fitness – I was running three times a week and attending a gym – may have masked any symptoms I was having.
“It was a bit of a shock in July being told that I needed open-heart surgery to fix the problem because there was no medication that could help. An angiogram was booked for September and the surgery was timetabled for before Christmas.
I had written letters in case I didn’t make it through and told my daughters where they were
“When the operation finally happened – it had been cancelled twice due to demand for ICU beds – I cried from here to Dublin.
“I had written letters in case I didn’t make it through and told my daughters where they were. I kept wondering whether or not would I come home.
“The surgery took over seven hours. They keep you asleep that day and wake you up the next. It was a shock waking up to feeling so sore. I felt like I’d literally been hit by a bus.
“Every little movement meant pain. I had hopped up on the table the morning before. Now everything hurt – movement, a cough, a sneeze.
“I was in hospital for a week and felt very weak for about a month afterwards but, like the surgeon said, after six weeks I was able to walk a couple of kilometres a day.
“I went back to work at the end of February and I was back running in March. I ran the mini marathon with my daughter and colleagues in June 2019, six months after open-heart surgery and we raised over €1,000 for the Irish Heart Foundation. It was very emotional stepping over the line when I thought of everything that had happened in the previous year.
“While I would have said that I had no symptoms before the operation I know now that running is a lot easier for me, breathing wise and I have more energy than I had before.
“I’m only taking a cholesterol tablet and an aspirin each day now and that’s it.
The scar on my chest is very visible...but I don't hide it
“The scar on my chest is very visible as the whole sternum or breastbone is opened from the V of the neck to the bottom of the ribcage but I don’t hide it. It’s because of it that I’m still here.
“People coming into the pharmacy sometimes comment if they’ve had something similar done. One woman said, ‘I see you’re part of the zipper club’. If it was as easy as a zipper it would be great.
“My key message for any woman reading this would be to have your check-ups. I didn’t think I had symptoms.
“I think us ladies are very busy and are very good at putting everyone else first but it is very scary when you read that one woman in four will die from cardiovascular disease.
“I think women put the symptoms down to other things like menopause or they feel exhausted and they think it’s from running round looking after kids.
“Symptoms of cardiovascular disease in women can be very different – that’s what we need to remember. I spoke with a woman who had a heart attack.
“She spoke of waking up with a strange kind of nausea and was violently sick. An hour later she had a heart attack.
“Another woman I spoke with had pain across her shoulders and down into the middle of her back, not really to the front. There is a lot of different things it could be put down to unfortunately so it’s important to be aware.
“The care I got was amazing. Open-heart surgery is a massive operation – they stop your heart and you’re put on a by-pass machine – so you have to be so thankful for all the surgeons and staff who do this every day. “
Know your bodyKnow the symptoms of heart attack in womenHave regular check-ups Don’t delay calling 999 if you have the symptoms mentioned. Women are more likely than men to have heart attack symptoms unrelated to chest pain, such as:
Neck, jaw, shoulder, upper back or abdominal discomfort.Shortness of breath.Pain in one or both arms.Nausea or vomiting.Sweating.Light-headedness or dizziness.Unusual fatigue.Indigestion.“The Irish Heart Foundation wants to empower women to live longer, healthier lives and the good news is that cardiovascular disease is preventable,” says Dr Brown. “Eighty per cent of premature death from this disease is preventable so awareness is key.”
Note: Having five or more children is associated with a 30% increased risk of heart disease – the major cause of heart attacks – as well as a 25% increased risk of stroke. This was shown in a Cambridge University study.
“The physical stress put on the body with the increasing circulation volume of blood when you are pregnant causes increased cardiac output so the heart has to work much harder,” Dr Brown said.
“As suggested in this study, women with lots of children have no time for themselves and are perhaps more likely to ignore symptoms and less likely to get checked out. This research reiterates how important it is for everyone to keep an eye on their health, especially busy parents.”
You can get involved by organising a coffee morning or a “pay to wear red today” day in your workplace or home during the month of February, for example, and sending the proceeds to the Irish Heart Foundation you will be helping the organisation keep hearts beating round the country. To sign up visit www.GoRed.ie
For more information about heart health see irishheart.ie
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