To say that the heart of a woman and a man are different is hardly surprising. I was confronted with this reality soon after my partner and I had a baby. Our baby cried a lot in the beginning, as babies do. As a previously rock star sleeper, I now heard every whimper, every shift and of course, every cry.
My man? He heard nothing.
During those long nights I spent at least a good couple of minutes honestly wondering how he could be such a bad person. So I did what I do and I researched. Turns out he wasn’t bad, he was normal. When it comes to sounds that wake men up at night, a crying baby doesn’t even crack the top ten. (1)
it is number one on women’s lists, whether they have a baby or not.
Biology. It’s a bitch.
Of course, it’s not just our emotional hearts that are different. Our physical hearts are as well. The Foundation for Gender Specific Medicine (yes that’s a thing) names many differences, including the fact that men’s hearts are larger, but women’s hearts beat faster. Women are also more likely to develop abnormally rapid heart rates. Interestingly, this can be linked to their menstrual periods. (2)
How would you know if your heart developed an abnormal rhythm? Well, there is a watch for that.
No, really.
Apple, of course, is on top of it. The new Apple Watch can give you the heartbeat tracking of an EKG. Both the watch or the medical test could warn about potentially life threatening conditions.
Pulse tracking is nothing new, but the addition of alerts is. Your watch could let you know when your heartrate has spiked above a certain level or even become too low. The optical sensor on the new Apple watch could determine atrial fibrillation, an irregular pattern that could lead to other complications, such as a heart attack or stroke. (3)
An Apple Watch is a good place to gather information and get an earlier diagnosis. It does, however, require follow-up and there is no app or gadget that is a replacement for a physician.
Once you are with a doctor, discuss your heart. Heart disease presents differently for women than for men, and the differences must be understood, even if you can’t fathom that it could happen to you. While “crushing pain in the chest” may be the only symptom you know, many women feel pain in the upper abdomen or back, or they may feel nauseous. In other words, things that you may associate with hormones could instead be your heart. (3)
If you simply feel different (and not good), you probably know better than a high tech watch, but the Apple Watch could be the incentive for some people to get checked out. Blood tests, X-rays, MRIs and stress tests are all options to get the whole story when an EKG fails.
As an example, Reyna Robles was a woman under 40 who started feeling chest pains. Regularly active and filled with energy, she was not the typical patient for heart disease. When she felt the pain was holding her back from living her life, she got an EKG, stress test and angiogram. They all showed as normal. After some frustrating and uncomfortable time, she was matched with the Women’s Heart Health at Stanford. This medical team found answers beyond the fact that there were no heart blockages. A surgery later, she has returned to living her life with gusto. (4)
Let's talk prevention. To treat your heart right, don’t smoke, be physically active and check your cholesterol and blood pressure regularly.
Whether it is a watch, a test or the right healthcare team, your heart is important. Medicine has learned a lot in the past 30 years about how women differ from men, but there is still a lot to be learned.(4)
Like how the heck did he sleep through the baby crying?
I’m over it. I swear.