A Change of Heart: Gender-Based Disparities in Heart Disease Care

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Gender-Based Disparities in Heart Disease Care

New report: Heart disease can sneak up on women in ways that standard cardiac tests can miss.

I volunteer with WomenHeart, running the Chapel Hill in-person support group. I got involved with them in 2009 after my own surprise heart attack at age 40.

Lucky for me, I had more of the "classic" male symptoms, so it was hard for the ER to brush me off when I came in complaining of chest pain that was radiating down my left arm and up into my neck, jaw and ear.

The report the article talks about is called The 2011 10Q Report: Advancing Women's Heart Health Through Improved Research, Diagnosis and Treatment. If you want to read the whole thing, you can download a PDF here:

http://www.womenheart.org/documents/upload/FINAL-TO-PRINTER-6-15-11.pdf

It's a sobering look at the disparities in care that still exist in women's heart disease treatment.

We have to have a multi-pronged approach, not only educating women, but reaching out and educating the medical community as well.

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Why am I doing this?

In March of 2009 I had a heart attack. It was as much a surprise to me as it was to the doctors; I don't have any risk factors--no high blood pressure, no diabetes, no clogged arteries, no family history; plus I'm a young (in cardiac terms) female who exercises. Definitely NOT the usual suspect for a heart attack.

But tell that to my body--I had one anyway. Turns out that I experienced a rare thing called a Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection. Don't google the term unless you're prepared to be depressed by mortality rates and statistics, and the fact that doctors really have no clue about what causes some people to have them.

The bright side is that my toast landed butter side up, and I'm still here. In 2009 I put together a one-shot fanzine called A Change of Heart; you can get a PDF copy of it from efanzines.com here. This blog is an extension of that fanzine and an effort to reach more people, both in and out of of the fannish science fiction community.

If you want to read my story from the beginning, I suggest starting with this link to my wonderful husband Paul's journal:

Laura Had A Heart Attack Monday Morning.

He kept up a pretty good running commentary of what was happening while I was still in the hospital, and it starts there. The "Next" and "Previous" links move to later and earlier entries, detailing our experiences.

In October, 2010, I competed in and finished the Chapel Hill Ramblin' Rose Triathlon. These are pictures Paul took of me riding my bike and running (he couldn't get into the pool).