One evening, you tune in to your favourite medical drama. As the scene opens, the calm of the hospital is shattered when a patient grabs their chest and collapses to the floor. The impossibly good-looking medical team rush in and work feverishly to save the heart attack victim.
In your mind did you picture a man or a woman having the heart attack?
Most people associate heart attacks with men. But cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally for both sexes, and women are more likely than men to die of a heart attack.
During a heart attack, women are more likely to present without pain, or with uncharacteristic symptoms. Treatment guidelines, however, are based on data collected primarily from men.
Sexism in cardiovascular research means that not only are heart attacks often missed in women, but women are also less likely to receive recommended therapies, interventions and rehabilitation opportunities.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally for both sexes, and women are more likely than men to die of a heart attack
More women are dying
One of the most common cardiovascular conditions is ischemic heart disease, which can lead to heart attacks. Heart attacks occur when blood vessels serving the heart are blocked, causing heart muscle to die. In most cases the blockage is due to atherosclerosis: the build-up of fatty plaques in the coronary arteries.
However, more than 50 per cent of women with ischemic heart disease don't have blocked coronary arteries. The Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) study found ischemic heart disease in women often occurs when smaller blood vessels of the heart known as the 'microcirculation' become damaged, causing them to close.
Despite advances which have decreased heart attack mortality, women have higher rates of death compared to men.
Why does the same condition kill more women than men?
Heart attacks without pain
Most heart attacks aren't sudden, painful events that cause victims to collapse to the ground. Pain may be gradual and mistaken for indigestion or a muscle ache.
Although chest pain is the most common symptom for both sexes, women are more likely to present without pain or have uncharacteristic symptoms including fatigue or discomfort in the neck, jaw and back. The failure to quickly recognize atypical symptoms can delay treatment and cause more heart damage.
A long-standing concern is that women delay seeking medical care and suffer greater damage by not acting quickly. A review of research from 1960 to 2008 cites 11 studies which
