In women, a heart attack can manifest itself in different ways, but not necessarily through the same symptoms as in men.
How to recognize them?
Cardiologist Claire Mounier-Vehier explains these particular symptoms at the microphone of Europe 1.
DECRYPTION
The symptoms of a heart attack can be different between men and women. But then, if you are a woman, how do you recognize them? This is the question asked by a listener on Wednesday in the program
Sans rendez-vous
d'Europe 1. Claire Mounier-Vehier, cardiologist at the Heart Lung Institute of the University Hospital of Lille, professor of vascular medicine at the University of Lille and co-founder of "Agir pour le Cœur des Femmes", an endowment fund focused on the prevention of cardiovascular diseases in women, tried to answer him.
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"The woman's heart attack symptoms are indeed different in one out of two cases. It's a vice pain: you have the impression of having the chest compressed, with a pain that goes in the jaw and in the arm. This reflects the fact that an artery in the heart, the coronary artery, is becoming blocked.
Dizziness, nausea, or fatigue
Other symptoms include sudden dizziness: it turns suddenly and your stomach hurts, like heartburn.
There are also digestive symptoms like nausea and even vomiting.
Finally, an unusual fatigability for the efforts of everyday life.
Often these symptoms are associated.
We must not say to ourselves: "it's nothing"
These symptoms do not occur in just all women. They occur in women who have cardiovascular risk factors: women who are smokers, stressed, sedentary, hyper-tense, diabetic or who have cholesterol. So a woman should not say to herself: 'It's okay, I'll talk to my doctor about it later'. It is necessary to consult, in particular if the symptoms last more than ten minutes. "