Heart Failure May Be More Lethal in Women

So, what ARE the symptoms in women???

I know to look for a lump in my breast and I know about cholesterol and diet and keeping my arteries clear. I knew squat about heart failure. In May of this year I noticed I was unusually breathless after climbing a hill on my dog walk but I chalked it up to having been fairly sedentary over the previous month due to an injury. Get in shape, I thought. I kept walking everyday and, truthfully, I thought I was improving, but then I started noticing trouble breathing at night while trying to sleep. I thought I might have developed asthma since I noticed some slight wheezing, but I also thought I could be having nocturnal panic attacks although I was not aware of being panicked—probably something I’m suppressing, I thought. Finally, after a particularly breathless night I said to my husband: “Let’s stop at urgent care and get an inhaler or something, then go to dinner.” It was our 41st anniversary. At urgent care the NA thought it was allergies until an EKG showed I was in Atrial Fibrillation with heart failure. Extremely high blood pressure and pulse and my lungs full of blood my heart did not have the strength to pump. I was stunned. 4 days in the hospital. Now, 45 days later, Heart now back to a normal beat and a fraction as enlarged. I feel good on just a couple meds. But for Pete’s sake if you are going to print an article about heart failure PLEASE explain what it is and how to recognize it. I was clueless—-and lucky.

Maybe the NYT could add a side bar listing the symptoms in men and women?

"Women in the study were more likely to be older and to have other diseases along with heart failure." Is it possible that women appeared to have more lethal outcomes simply because they were older? The only way to determine this would be to make comparisons of outcomes for men and women of the same age (an age by sex interaction). That was not done! The problem is that the authors' risk equation assumed age-invariant risk for a condition - heart failure - that is known to have increasing risk with age ("With 50% of all heart failure diagnoses and 90% of all heart failure deaths occurring in the segment of the population over age 70, heart failure is largely a disease of the elderly."www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3223374/).

Maybe because it presents in women at a more advanced age when they are not as strong?

So women are statistically more likely to die from heart disease. But missing from this brief article are symptoms and causes. Including, why women are not listened to when speaking to doctors; they may have a higher tolerance for pain or feel it differently; or may be socialized to dismiss symptoms. This article omits many points — just like a visit to the doctor, if you’re female.

Female, age 77, diagnosed with heart failure. A little more info beyond I'm more likely to die would be very useful. Say, why? Anything I can do to lessen the risk? Should we include the headline as adding to the risk?

Women may be more frequently diagnosed with diastolic insufficiency with preserved ejection fraction, or right sided heart failure. This diagnosis has no effective treatment and the normal appearing EF conveys the impression that the heart is relatively strong despite significant symptoms. As with other cardiac conditions affecting women, the seriousness of this is often ignored and it is under treated.

Please give a list of the possible symptoms in women.