Ask anyone on the street and they will tell you.. There ARE many, many differences between the sexes.

“I think women are smarter.”...
“Men are stubborn.”...
“Women can have babies, men can’t.”...
“Women are quite unpredictable, aren’t they?”

Yes women are not the same as men, even in how they experience heart disease. But the incorrect perception that women aren’t nearly as susceptible to coronary disease as men is killing them, literally.

Dr. Nieca Goldberg is a specialist in women’s heart health. She says, “Last year a sure among physician was done that showed only one in five recognized heart disease as a leading health care issue in women. If women have symptoms of shortness of breath or unexplained fatigue or the pressure isn’t in the center of the chest but lower down, those need to be considered as significant heart symptoms and women need to be referred for appropriate testing.”

There is a misconception that women are not as susceptible to heart disease, denying them vital angina treatment. Though women’s experience of heart disease is different from men, the incorrect perception that women aren’t nearly as susceptible to coronary disease as men is killing them, literally.

Dr. Nieca Goldberg is a specialist in women’s heart health. She says, “A survey among physicians showed only one in five recognized heart disease as a leading health care issue in women. If women have symptoms of shortness of breath or unexplained fatigue or the pressure isn’t in the center of the chest but lower down, these need to be considered as significant heart symptoms and women need to be referred for appropriate testing.”

New research out of the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation shows women are treated very differently from the outset of evaluation of chest pain; and that has a huge trickle down effect with regard to the rest of the patient management.

When being seen for non-worsening chest pain or other cardiac symptoms--what’s called stable angina--women were less likely to get worked up with a stress test.

Maybe that’s because the test is not deemed to be as accurate in women.

“In the past, stress tests were not considered as accurate in women. But we know that exercise stress testing with images either with a radioactive isotope improved the diagnosis of heart disease in women, and if those tests are abnormal they need to be followed up,” says Dr. Goldberg.

But the study found, only a quarter of patients with angina who did not get an exercise stress test got another exam instead, like a nuclear stress test.

And, perhaps worse, women are also not given the right treatment, even after being diagnosed.

“Aspirin is still underutilized in women are less likely to be treated for elevated cholesterol and that needs to be improved and they are being under treated for their symptoms. It limits their quality of life they can’t do the things they like to do,” Dr. Goldberg adds.

Women were also less likely to get cardiac catheterization, and they were 30 percent less likely to get their vessels opened up!

The study found among those who did get a cardiac cath to look at the vessels, women overall experienced worse outcomes: they continued to experience chest pain and had about twice the rates of death or heart attack after one year compared to men.

Dr. Goldberg says the problem will be corrected through continued education of both patients and doctors.

For women, it’s public campaigns, like the “go red” campaign by the heart association, and for the doctors, it comes down to more pressure by groups like the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology to get doctors to better recognize heart disease in women and then know how to treat it.

One interesting question is whether women cardiologists, in New York and other cities, do a better job than male cardiologists, but that hasn’t been studied.

Related Stories

 - TV AND SLEEP PROBLEMS
 - OBESITY AND IMPOTENCE
 - CELL PHONES AND BRAIN CANCER