Hidden heart attack danger for women

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Wake-up call … Samantha De Pietro says her heart attack was “very much a shock”. Picture: Jason Sammon

AN astounding sexism uncovered in the treatment of women means even though they are less likely than men to suffer from a heart attack, they are almost as likely to die from one.

The Heart Foundation has found women are being let down by their doctors with fewer women than men referred for cardiac rehabilitation after a heart attack.

They are less likely to be counselled by doctors to take their medication or have their condition and recovery properly explained to them than men.

Every year 36,000 men and 19,000 women are admitted to hospital for a heart attack.

However, despite this gap, 4,500 women a year die from a heart attack almost as many as the 4,700 men who die from one.

Deaths from heart disease in women are much greater than from breast cancer which kills around 2,900 women a year.

The Heart Foundation’s women’s health spokeswoman Julie Anne Mitchell says it’s because women are more likely than men to die from a second heart attack.

And this is because they don’t get the same attention and advice as men after their first heart attack.

Mother-of-four Samantha De Pietro had a heart attack while secretly wrapping Christmas presents in the garden shed on Christmas Eve last year.

When the ambulance turned up they didn’t believe the 44-year-old had suffered a heart attack but hospital tests confirmed the event and Samantha had two stents inserted to clear a blocked artery.

The Frankston mum says is was “very much a shock for me and my friends because even though more women die from heart disease there is so much more awareness of breast cancer,” she said.

She’s urging women to realise they are at risk of a heart attack and get a heart check at their doctors.

Take care ... Frankston mum Samantha De Pietro, who suffered a heart attack last Christmas Eve, says women need to be vigilant. Picture: Jason Sammon
Take care … Frankston mum Samantha De Pietro, who suffered a heart attack last Christmas Eve, says women need to be vigilant. Picture: Jason Sammon Source:News Corp Australia

The sexism in heart attack treatment starts at the research stage because most of the research on heart attacks has been done on men and simply extrapolated to women says Julie Anne Mitchell.

A heart attack even feels different in a woman than in a man and that’s why women are less likely to recognise the symptoms.

“Women are less likely to experience central chest pain and are more likely to have pain in the arm, the jaw or their back between the shoulder blades or an overwhelming sense of fatigue or nausea,” Ms Mitchell said.

Women have smaller bodies and their blood vessels are smaller and that affects how they respond to therapies.

Men get large plaque clots in their blood vessels but women have microvascular disease where the plaque is spread more evenly in blood vessels, she says.

A Heart Foundation survey of 504 heart attack survivors found while 56 per cent of men were advised to completed a cardiac rehabilitation course only 43 per cent of women were.

While 68 per cent of men were advised by medical staff to take their medication only 56 per cent of women were.

While 73 per cent of men thought medical staff spent enough time explaining what would happen during their recovery only 55 per cent of women felt this way.

“It’s a common stereotype that women are better at looking after their health than men. But when it comes to heart health, they don’t. Women underestimate the impact of a heart attack on their health and are less likely to take the steps necessary to keep them out of hospital a second time,” said Ms Mitchell.

The Heart Foundation is urging all women aged over 45 to see their doctors and have a heart health check that will rate their chance of having a heart attack in the next five years.