Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation

Heart Disease Symptoms May Differ in Females: 'Today' takes a look at two women at risk for heart attacks, but who struggled to be heard by their doctors

TODAY
January 24, 2006

In the movies, heart attacks are always obvious — various movies show women and men dying of heart attacks or dropping dead but in real life, especially for women, the symptoms of potentially fatal heart disease are often overlooked.

Susan Goodreds: I would talk about having this feeling of pressure in my chest, or maybe here or maybe here. But nothing painful.

64-year-old Susan Goodreds complained for years to her doctors about the discomfort in her chest. She also had high cholesterol.

Goodreds: I would get recommendations to reduce stress. It was almost as if these symptoms were put over on a the stress plate. They weren't seen as potential heart disease.

Rhonda Barrett says her symptoms were also missed by doctors. Even though they fit the standard profile of heart trouble.

Rhonda Barrett: For seven days, I went to the hospital. I'm complaining of chest pain. Explaining that I had the elephant sensation on my chest. The crushing substernal chest pain. The nausea, the vomiting, the numbness and tingling in my left arm, and they kept telling me there is nothing wrong.

To read the rest of this interview and to learn more about female heart disease symptoms, click the article link above.