This Specific NIH-Sponsored Study Shows Women with Repeated Chest Pain Are Different!
But the System Has Not Changed to Protect Them
Women ARE different! You often hear that medical research does not examine the differences between women and men when it comes to diseases and treatment. This is much worse. We have known that women with repeated chest pain and no fixed arterial blockage have a high risk of heart attack for 20 years. Excellent research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health has been done, but it has been largely ignored. Even though women with repeated chest pain who do not have heart artery blockages have a high risk of heart attack, they are still managed under the old system. They have a stress test. If that is suspicious they have a heart catheterization, and if there are no blockages they are told it is not their heart. But that is wrong. If they have repeated chest pain that is relieved by nitroglycerin most often it is their heart and optimal medical therapy (OMT) will help them. Most have complete pain relief within a year with OMT.
The consequences of ignoring this specific research are grave. These women have a life-threatening problem, but it is not being addressed. They continue to suffer. It is very frightening. They continue to have pain, return to the emergency room, and have repeated tests. Worst of all, they are often led to believe it is their nerves, or they are depressed. I have treated a woman who had a proven heart attack who had no heart artery blockage at all. I have treated over 20 women with this kind of problem. Because the issue is not effectively addressed, they continue to have big medical bills. The lifetime costs of patients like this who have repeated chest pain is $750,000 on average. The cost in suffering and lives lost is still greater. It is past time for women to consistently receive optimal medical treatment if they have repeated chest pain. Don’t you agree? Are there women out there who have had this problem and would like to comment?