Symtoms of a Heart Attack
Get the Facts about Heart Disease in Women

While the most common symptom of a heart attack (in both women and men) is crushing chest pain, women also experience lesser typcial symptoms such as:

  • Pain in the jaw or shoulder
  • Sweating
  • Nausea
  • Shortness of breath
  • Indigestion or heartburn
  • Weakness or fatigue

These symptoms should be taken seriously. If you think you may be having a heart attack, call 9-1-1 immediately. Don’t wait. Minutes count. What else can you do? Chewing an uncoated aspirin right away, at the fi rst sign of chest discomfort or distress, can reduce the amount of damage to the heart muscle during a heart attack.

Stats

• Estimates are that 8,900,000 people in the United States suffer from angina.

• On the average, women take 2-4 hours longer than men to respond to symptoms of heart attack,
limiting the beneficial use of some newer treatments like clot busters
that work best within the first hour after onset of pain or discomfort.

• Women who’ve had a heart attack are at higher risk of having a second heart attack. 22 percent
of women ages 40–69 who survive a first stroke or heart attack will have another stroke, heart attack or fatal coronary heart disease within five years.

• Sudden death is more common among women with heart attack.

• From 1983 to 1993, heart attack deaths fell about 30% overall but have not fallen nearly as much
for women.

Source: American Heart Assoc.