A doctor advocates to change the perception that the heart attack "it’s a man thing"

2023-07-18 16:14:21

Doctor of Health Sciences and Professor of Nursing at the University of Cantabria (UC) Ana Rosa Alconero He has advocated changing the perception that “heart attacks are a man’s thing”, as opposed to the idea that women do not have cardiovascular diseases and that if their chest hurts they do not associate it with a heart attack.

“Women have a perception that they do not have cardiovascular diseases, that if their chest hurts or something else hurts them, it does not have to be a heart attack, it seems that it is a man thing. That perception has to change”, said Alconero, who participates in the fourth edition of ‘Keys to interpret an electrocardiogram’ of the UC Summer Courses in Laredo.

Different symptoms between men and women

In his opinion, although this situation is improving, it is partly due to the fact that, traditionally, in all or almost all diseases the symptoms that they produce in men have been taken as a pattern, “some symptoms that women sometimes have, but not always”. In fact, in many cases, faced with the same ailment, “Women present symptoms that differ from those of men.”

In this sense, he explained that, in the face of a heart attack, in women the pain “is more extrathoracic, their back hurtsthe scapulae, the jaw, the throat”, while the man hurts “plus the thorax, radiating to the arm”.

For this reason, when some women are suffering from a heart attack, “they do not have the perception that what is happening to them is a very serious thing, they do not give it importance and when they arrive at the hospital it may be too late”.

Women attribute any pain to something that occurs to us, but what we are suffering is still a heart attack

“Women worry more about the family. We stay for the last, we attribute any pain to something that occurs to us, but anyway what we are suffering is a heart attack and we do not know how to see it,” she specified.

For Alconero, “it’s not that we women can put up with more, it’s that we are more responsible”, that is, “When the husband, brother or father fall ill, it is the wife who accompanies; when it is the woman who is sick, she goes alone “. For this reason, she has recalled that” the heart attack kills “and hence the importance of going to the emergency room for both a man and a woman.

Tobacco, obesity and hypercholesterolemia

He has also highlighted that tobacco, obesity, hypercholesterolemia or age are factors that add to the chances of suffering a heart attack and has stressed that if there is pain, you should see a doctor.

In his speech, Alconero also highlighted that, according to the Statistics National Institute (INE), the first cause of mortality among Spaniards is cardiovascular diseases, but they do not affect both sexes equally.

Women die more than men from these diseases, but specifically from ischemic heart disease, acute myocardial infarction, more men die than women, has pointed out. However, the average age in women is higher at the time of suffering a heart attack, since they are at greater risk after 10 years of menopause, she specified.