Myocardial infarction – differences in symptoms between men and women? | Stitching in the left breast

Myocardial infarction – differences in symptoms between men and women?

A heart attack can manifest itself in many different ways. There are the classic signs of recognition, such as a twinge in the chest, a feeling of tightness in the chest area or pain in the chest region (lasting longer than 5 minutes), pulling into different left parts of the body, shortness of breath or dizziness. Men usually suffer from the above symptoms.

Women, by comparison, more often experience so-called unspecific symptoms. These symptoms can also be described as slight signs of a heart attack, as the symptoms are usually much weaker than those of the male sex. It is therefore possible that a heart attack patient may lack the typical stabbing pain in the chest.

Instead, there is often only a feeling of tightness in the chest area. Other unspecific symptoms are vomiting or nausea, discomfort in the upper abdomen, shortness of breath and shortness of breath. If such symptoms occur for the first time and are persistent in a woman, an emergency doctor should always be called.

Diagnosis

The clinic uses blood pressure measurement, pulse measurement, listening to the heart and lungs, as well as a cardiac current measurement (ECG) for diagnostics. Another important means of diagnosis are the infarct markers in the blood. When a prick is made in the left breast, most people involuntarily think of a heart attack.

This assumption is based on the pain in the heart region. However, there are many different causes for a twinge in the left breast. The heart can indeed be identified as the cause, but this does not mean that a heart attack is also the cause.

For this reason it is very important to observe the pain closely. The doctor should be told when the pain occurs and where exactly it is located. If a left-sided pain in the heart area occurs suddenly, for the first time and very strongly, the emergency doctor should be called immediately. If it is a heart attack in this case, the diagnosis must be made quickly and appropriate treatment must be given.