Needless deaths
Women are dying needlessly from heart attacks in the UK, or not making as good a recovery as they could, because they don't receive the same care and treatment as men.
We have brought together evidence in a new briefing, 'Bias and Biology', which reveals the scale of the inequality.
Decades of research have transformed the likely outcome for someone suffering a heart attack. Yet if you are a woman, the odds are stacked differently.Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, Associate Medical Director, British Heart Foundation
The briefing shows that:
- women having a heart attack delay seeking medical help longer than men because they don't recognise the symptoms
- a woman is 50% more likely than a man to receive the wrong initial diagnosis for a heart attack
- women are less likely than men to receive a number of potentially life saving treatments in a timely way
- following a heart attack women are less likely to be prescribed medications to help prevent a second heart attack.
Doctors thought my symptoms were due to asthma, stress and anxiety at a time when I was changing jobs. But on holiday I had a heart attack and the very next morning I was sent for heart bypass surgery.Simone Telford,
Read our briefing
Ending these inequalities must start with tackling the misconception that coronary heart disease and heart attack is a man’s disease, so more women take action to understand their risk and recognise the symptoms of a heart attack.
Read our briefing to find out more about the inequalities women face in awareness, diagnosis, treatment and care following a heart attack.