Is it true that heart attack symptoms for women can be different from men’s symptoms?
Dr. Magno: Heart attacks in women can have typical symptoms. I try to stress that it’s important to know what the typical symptoms are. Go to the americanheart.org website and see. Common symptoms include pain or discomfort in the chest, arms, neck, back, jaw or stomach. Women can also experience shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting. There’s no one single symptom that absolutely signals a heart attack. But most of the chest discomfort is going to be in the middle of the chest. Everybody thinks the heart is on the left side, the pain should be on the left side: It may not be. The classic symptom is a dull, squeezing pain underneath the breastbone. It’s important for women to recognize the typical symptoms, but occasionally they could have symptoms that are less typical, like just fatigue or breathlessness, without the chest pain. With fatigue, when you’re doing something exertional, you may just feel an inability to do anything. Women with diabetes also don’t necessarily have typical
