Nurse's Notes

by Kate Reeves

April 2006 View

WOMEN ARE NOT SMALL MEN**

 

Golly! Isn’t that an acute observation? Surprisingly, the medical profession (doctors, nurses and others) have been treating women as if they were just that for a very long time. Only recently have drug trials and other facets of medical knowledge been tailored to fit women, who are NOT just small men.

One of the great areas of difference is in heart disease. Women’s physiology is very different, especially when it comes to the heart. Women’s hearts are proportionately smaller and they develop the first signs and symptoms of heart disease about ten years later than men do. We now know that heart disease is so deadly for women that their chances of dying from it are one in two. (By contrast, for example, the chances of a woman getting breast cancer during her lifetime are approximately one in eight, and the chances of dying from it are one in twenty-five).

The younger a woman is, the less likely she is to have heart symptoms. Until age fifty-five men are much more likely than women to develop heart problems. After menopause a woman’s risk goes up sharply until by age sixty it is as great as a man’s.

We all know the stereotypical signs of a heart attack—severe pain in the chest radiating down the left arm, clammy skin, nausea, perhaps shortness of breath or lapsing into unconsciousness. For women, the picture is often very different. An incipient heart attack may resemble indigestion, or even back ache (upper back pain). Often it is just a vague feeling of malaise, or shortness of breath during what should be routine activities. Sometimes the symptoms are unusual fatigue, dizziness, or palpitations.

Women’s heart attacks unfold differently, from the first symptoms through the actual heart attack and into recovery. Women’s hearts appear to create different pains than men’s. Doctors don’t know why, but women’s symptoms are more varied—men get chest pain, women may get upper abdominal or back pain.

Because the symptoms are not “typical”, they are often unrecognized and not treated soon enough. With a heart attack, any delay in seeking treatment means increased chance of losing heart muscle (time = muscle), and the tragic result is that women are twice as likely as men to die within the first few weeks following a heart attack.

It all boils down to this for women: pay attention to your body! As women, we are likely to think we have to take care of others—we don’t “have time” to be sick or to seek help. “I’ll feel better tomorrow”, or “I’ll call the doctor as soon as ‘you-name-the-holiday’ is over.” We need to be more respectful of the gift God has given us.

 

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