4 ms·

Is the ECG for a heart attack the same for women and men? The symptoms aren’t.

• hwillis 1y ago
  The most common heart attack symptoms are the same for men and women. The less common, less diagnostic symptoms are more common in women. Over time the medical opinion has swung back and forth (eg thinking women had less pain, until it was recognized that many men have heart attacks without pain) but the current consensus is that the important symptoms are pretty much the same between men and women. Women may be more likely to experience nausea during a heart attack, but you can't use nausea to diagnose a heart attack and men get nauseated a similar amount. These symptoms also don't take into account body types, which have a big impact on the type of attack and symptoms. Men and women have slightly different ECGs and a doctor can usually tell your gender from an ECG. The appearance of a heart attack will be more similar than a normal heartbeat. Gender differences have a much smaller impact on an ECG than things like body mass and blood pressure. Overworked hearts will look more like overworked hearts.