WHY HEART ATTACKS often go unrecognized in women.

When you picture someone having a heart attack, you most likely imagine them doubled over with severe chest pain—a pretty obvious signal that something’s not okay—but symptoms of a heart attack in women can actually be a lot subtler than they are in men.

Yes, you might have pressure or pain in the center of your chest, but surprisingly, women might experience jaw pain while having a heart attack. Other symptoms specific to women include upper back pain, arm pain, intense fatigue, heartburn, or “just not feeling right,” says Laxmi Mehta, M.D., clinical director of the Women’s Cardiovascular Health Program at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center and lead author of the AHA’s statement. According to the AHA, if the heart isn’t giving a good signal, pain can radiate to the jaw, neck, or back. But Mehta says doctors don’t know why jaw pain and discomfort in other areas of the upper body tend to manifest as symptoms in women and not men.

I can attest from the Insta-Wife’s experience that doctors can be slow to diagnose a heart attack in women, especially women who look young and fit. In her case the expert system on an EKG machine in the ER signaled a possible MI but the cardiologist ignored it as an obvious error. Nope!