At one time, heart disease was believed to largely only happen to men, which meant women weren’t included in health studies on the topic.
While this has changed ― and it’s now known that heart disease is the leading cause of death for women (and men) in the United States ― research is still catching up. This means heart health outcomes are worse for women than they are for men.
Heart disease is an umbrella term for many cardiovascular conditions, including coronary artery disease, which can lead to emergent episodes like heart attacks ― which are also understudied in women.
“In medical school, when we learn about heart attacks, we learn about something called typical chest pain, and that is ... right behind the center of your chest, and it’s crushing chest pain that usually goes down your left arm and it goes up to your jaw,” said Dr. Jennah Morgan, an emergency medicine physician at the Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center.
Generally, someone experiencing this type of pain walks into a hospital while gripping their chest and sweating, Morgan added. However, heart attacks don’t present this way in everyone — especially women.
