WOMEN who have not yet hit menopause are “less likely to die of a heart attack”, experts have claimed.
A study revealed that premenopausal women have good long-term outcomes after they experience a heart attack.
Researchers at Parma University Hospital in Italy said that oestrogen helps protect women against heart disease.
The study compared outcomes of men and women under the age of 45 who had suffered a heart attack.
It included 2,000 patients who presented with a heart attack at 125 Italian coronary care units between 1998 and 2002.
The study looked at 1,778 men and 222 women.
The primary end point for the researchers was a composite of a recurrent heart attack, stroke, or death from cardiovascular disease.
Twenty years after these patients experienced a heart attack just 25.7 per cent of women experienced a mixture of the above symptoms while in men this number rose to 37 per cent.
Around 35,000 women are admitted to hospital following a heart attack each year in the UK - an average of 98 per day, or four per hour.
But what are the signs you need to look out for?
Fatigue: We can also experience feeling tired from time to time, but experts say that extreme fatigue can be a sign that something is wrong.
It’s much more likely to affect women – around 70 per cent – who also may also put their symptoms down to flu, according to Healthline. Feel exhausted for no reason could begin months before a heart attack, which is why it’s vital to see a doctor as early as possible.
Sweating more: Sweating more than usual – especially if you’ve not been active – could be an early warning sign.
Pumping blood around clogged arteries takes more effort from your heart, so your body sweats more to try to keep the body temperature down.
Women often mistake this symptom as a hot flush or a night sweat more typical of menopause.
But if you wake up and the sheets are damp or experience cold sweats and clammy skin then it’s worth consulting your doctor.
Shortness of breath: The heart pumps blood so it can circulate to your tissues and get oxygen to your lungs.
If your heart can’t pump blood effectively – as is the case with a heart attack – then it can cause breathlessness.
This symptom is diagnosed in 40 per cent of cases and is a strong feeling of being unable to draw a deep breath.
It can be an accompanying symptom to unusual fatigue in women, but can occur for both genders up to six months prior to a heart attack.
Chest pain: Chest pain, or discomfort, is one of the most common early sign of a heart attack.
People have described it as feeling like an elephant standing on their chest.
Others say it’s more of a chest tightness or squeezing sensation.
It may seem bad for a few minutes and then go away, and come back hours or even a day later.
Chest pain tends to affect just 30 per cent of women – which is why it’s vital to know the other signs.
If you are suffering this symptom, speak to your GP immediately or call 111 for advice.
Looking at the components separately, the researchers found that secondary heart attacks were less common in women compared to men.
Just 14.2 per cent of women had a secondary heart attack against 25.4 per cent of men.
However they also found that women were more likely to have a stroke than men, with 7.7 per cent of women experiencing this against 3.7 per cent of men.
The study was presented at the ESC Congress 2020 and principal investigator Professor Diego Ardissino said: “Previous research has shown that women are more likely to die after a heart attack than men.
“Our study shows that this does not hold true before the menopause, when women are still exposed to oestrogen, a hormone that protects against heart disease.”
The researchers also revealed that smoking, alcohol consumption, high blood lipids, and diabetes were more frequent in men than in women.
Prof Ardissino said that premenopausal women had a better prognosis due to different mechanisms behind heart attacks.
The study found that women were more likely to have healthy arteries than men, with 36.5 per cent of women displaying healthy arteries against 15.4 per cent of men.
But women were more likely to have a tear in a blood vessel supplying the heart (coronary artery dissection),with 5.4 per cent of women experiencing this against 0.7 per cent of men.
Prof Ardissino added: “In men, coronary events were mostly due to blocked arteries, while in women they had other causes such as coronary dissection which is known to have a more favourable prognosis and a lower risk of recurrence.”
After suffering a heart attack and being discharged from hospital, the study found that men were more likely to be prescribed medications to protect against a second heart attack.
These medications included aspirin, beta blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs).
ProfArdissino said: “The disparity in prescribing may be due to the lower burden of coronary artery disease found in women in the study.
“It could also relate to the general under-prescribing of medication for women compared to men seen in other studies of acute cardiac events.”
He concluded: “In contrast to the prevailing literature, women experiencing an early-onset heart attack have favourable long-term outcomes compared to men, despite being prescribed fewer preventive medications.”
