It is becoming increasingly clear how different heart disease is in men and women. Many people think that more men die from it, but this is not the case. Read it here!
Female complaints
Mystery unraveled
The heart is on the left, in both men and women. But it is becoming increasingly clear how different heart disease is in men and women. Many people think that it mainly affects men, but more women (21,870) than men (19,850) die from cardiovascular disease. These diseases are even the number one cause of death for them: one in three Dutch women dies of a heart attack or stroke. It is true that cardiovascular problems in women often arise ten years later than in men: after the age of 50. The reason is that the female hormones offer protection until the menopause.
Female complaints
Heart disease can cause different symptoms in women than in men. The classic symptom of a heart attack in men and women is an oppressive, pressing pain in the middle of the chest that can radiate to the arms and jaws. But women can also have very different symptoms that are much more vague: sudden dizziness, severe fatigue, shortness of breath, or severe sleep problems (often combined with a significant decrease in the condition over a short period of time). All complaints that you can also attribute to other causes. Often, therefore, women do not realize that there is something wrong with their hearts. But many doctors also do not recognize the typically female symptoms and often misjudge them. As a result, women are less likely than men to receive the right treatment in time, and more likely to die. 42 percent of European women die within a year of a heart attack, 24 percent of men.
If you suffer from the aforementioned complaints without a clear explanation for this, such as extreme stress, it is therefore vital to have it checked whether it is possibly the heart.
There is still nothing in the brochures of the Heart Foundation about typical female heart complaints, but the employees of the Information Line are well aware of it. For more information, it is therefore best to call the Information Line of the Heart Foundation: 0900-300 03 00. You can also email your questions to cardio@lumc.nl.
Mystery unraveled
Heart disease does not always develop in the same way in men and women. A classic heart attack is caused by a blockage (due to a build-up of ‘plaque’) in one of the coronary arteries.
But in quite a few women who repeatedly cringe from the pain in their chest, doctors cannot find such a blockage at all. Weeks, months, or even years later, some of these women are in the emergency room. With a heart attack.
In America, some heart disease experts decided to unravel this medical mystery. For years they conducted research: the Women’s Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation and followed a thousand women with chest pain in whom no abnormalities could be found. What turned out? Heart disease can develop very differently in women: the plaque does not always settle ‘neatly’ in a heap, as in the male coronary arteries, but can spread along the entire wall of the arteries or hide in the smaller ones. ramifications. This does impede blood flow to the heart, but cannot be seen even with cardiac catheterization.
About 15 percent of heart disease in women appears to be this typically female, microvascular syndrome. It can only be diagnosed in the hospital with a Multislice CT scan. This allows the coronary arteries and smaller branches to be viewed in detail and three-dimensionally within seconds, and the amount of plaque in the vessel wall can be clearly seen. The microvascular syndrome cannot yet be cured, but it can be slowed down: with cholesterol lowers, lowering blood pressure, and with lifestyle changes such as more exercise, weight loss, healthy eating and not smoking.
Mmv cardiologist Harriëtte Verwey of the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC).
Sources):
- Plus Magazine
