What to Know About Women’s Heart Health

We recently wrote about FemTech and how these apps and services are improving women’s health and quality of life. We noticed, though, that so many FemTech companies are addressing fertility, parenting, menstruation, and menopause. Don’t get us wrong – we love the work these female-focused technologies are doing. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention, though, that there’s a lot more that makes women’s health unique than our reproductive organs.

Case in point: did you know that women experience different heart attack symptoms than men? It’s true (Harvard). For example, women experience unusual fatigue and shortness of breath leading up to and during a heart attack. Notice the commonly known left arm pain is not listed. That means a woman waiting for that to be her signal to seek help might be too late in getting care.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women in the United States, and about 44% of women in the US live with some form of heart disease (CDC). That makes this information vital not only for women at higher risk of a heart attack but also for anyone with a mother, aunt, friend, neighbor, partner, and the like that can help spread awareness and ultimately save lives.

The symptoms women most commonly experience during a heart attack are fatigue, dizziness, nausea, stomach pain, and sometimes chest pain (which women are less likely to experience than men are), per NHLBI. Compared to men, women are also less likely to experience symptoms at all, so make sure to visit your doctors regularly and go in without hesitation if you feel like something is off.

For more on women’s heart health, visit Go Red for Women, which has tons of resources on disease prevention and management. Our team is also here to support women through all stages of their health journeys. For more information, contact us today.