It seems Hollywood has been doing a disservice to women when it comes to showing what a heart attack  feels like. Although men often get the signs of a heart attack that appear on the Silver Screen, like tightening of the chest, shortness of breath, clutching the chest and dropping to one knee, a new and as yet unpublished study has found that women can get different symptoms.

Researchers conducted in-depth telephone interviews with 30 women who had had a heart attack, within seven days of their being discharged from the hospital, about what had happened to them. The average age of the women was 48—not the age you might associate with heart disease. Many of the women said they didn't realize their symptoms could be due to a heart problem, or that they were even at risk of heart disease.

The study, presented by researchers from Yale School of Medicine at a recent meeting of the American Heart Association, found that women who had a heart attack often got atypical symptoms, such as neck and shoulder pain, discomfort that was easy to mistake for indigestion, or unusual fatigue.

Researchers say they found the women were surprised to find their actual symptoms differed from the "Hollywood heart attack" that they would have expected. And because they didn't link these symptoms to heart problems, women often delayed seeking medical care. But it's not just the women who were confused. They reported that doctors also often failed to act quickly because they didn't realize women were having a heart attack.

A knowledge gap that needs filling

This study highlights the need to educate both the public and the medical profession about what symptoms women can get with a heart attack. Although heart disease is still quite uncommon in women in their late 40s and early 50s, every year 16,000 American women in this age group die from heart problems and 40,000 need to be treated in the hospital. Overall, 460,000 American women die from a heart attack annually.

—Zosia Kmietowicz, patient editor, BMJ Group

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