Women at higher risk of heart disease than men due to systemic failures in health system: report
When Jessica Solomon started experiencing chest ache and nausea in October, she went to a hospital in Brandon, Man.
“After doing scans, and not really finding a cause, I was sent home,” recounted the 36-year-old.
But one thing advised her issues weren’t fairly proper. So she went again to the hospital.
It seems, she nearly died. She was struggling a large coronary heart assault, the place 80 per cent of her proper coronary artery was blocked.
“If I hadn’t come back, if I hadn’t trusted my gut and went back at 2 a.m., I wouldn’t have been alive because it was a very serious heart attack,” she mentioned. “So if I had just forced myself to take medication and go to sleep, there was a very good chance that I wouldn’t have woken up.”
A brand new report from Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada reveals girls’s coronary heart and mind well being is at a better threat than males on account of systemic failures throughout the health-care system.
“It was startling for me,” mentioned Solomon. “You know it was something that could have even been missed.”
The report reveals {that a} failing health-care system, and health-care inequities proceed to depart girls’s coronary heart and mind well being behind.
According to Heart and Stroke, girls’s our bodies should not the identical as males’s, that means girls face distinct threat elements making them extra inclined to expertise sure forms of coronary heart and mind situations.
“Heart disease and stroke is the number one killer of women worldwide,” mentioned Dr. Mahwash Saeed, a heart specialist and professor on the University of Manitoba.
Pregnancy and menopause are distinct threat elements for girls. According to Heart and Stroke, girls who expertise strokes are at a better threat of dying than males. And in the event that they survive, girls have worse outcomes.
Saeed says girls accrue threat elements for coronary heart illness and stroke at a extra speedy price once they become old.
“Often women present with symptoms that we don’t typically think are associated with heart disease or stroke, and as such, their symptoms are ignored, not taken seriously and worked up,” mentioned Saeed.
In 2019, coronary heart illness and stroke claimed the lives of 32,271 girls in Canada, equating to at least one lady’s life each 16 minutes.
Solomon understands the health-care system is underneath lots of stress, however she says it’s essential to advocate on your personal well being.
“When you are a woman, when you are younger, when you are overweight, all of those things work against you in our health-care system and make it less likely that you are going to be taken seriously,” she mentioned. “It’s really important, when you know that something is wrong, to not give in and make sure to push for the care you need.”
According to the most recent Heart and Stroke nationwide ballot, practically 40 per cent of Canadians have no idea that coronary heart illness and stroke are the main reason for untimely dying in girls.
Saeed says there’s a lack of awareness round girls’s well being.
“It’s important to take care of yourself, and it’s really important to put yourself first sometimes. Putting yourself first means you will be around longer for those people you love and you are taking care of.”
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