Doctor warns heart attack symptoms in women are dangerously missed

A television doctor has issued a serious warning about heart attack symptoms in women, saying they are too often dismissed as signs of anxiety or another less serious condition. Dr Nighat Arif, a women’s health specialist who has appeared on the BBC and ITV, said the way heart attacks present in women is frequently “dangerously overlooked”, Wales Online reports.

In a TikTok video, Dr Arif said: “You’re too anxious — that’s what too many women hear while their heart is literally struggling for oxygen. And I see it in my clinics as well, because we were taught heart attacks look like a man clutching his chest. It’s sharp, it’s dramatic, it’s obvious.

“But over the years, as somebody who does women’s health, I’ve realised that in women it’s not the case at all. It’s quieter, it’s easy to dismiss, it’s easier to miss.”

She urged women to be alert to a range of potential warning signs, including unexplained breathlessness, persistent nausea and a dull pain spreading to the back, the area between the shoulder blades, the shoulders or the jaw. Dr Arif also highlighted a feeling that something is seriously wrong, even when the cause is difficult to identify.

She added that some women may experience flu-like symptoms, meaning their condition does not match the “textbook” image of a heart attack and can instead be labelled anxiety, stress or an overreaction.

Dr Arif said: “Here’s the truth we don’t say loudly enough. Young women are twice as likely as men their age to die in the year after a heart attack. Not because their hearts are weaker, because their symptoms were overlooked, dismissed, delayed. This isn’t rare, this is happening every day.

“So I want you to know this. If something feels off, even if it doesn’t look like a heart attack, trust your body. Think about it as being a heart attack in women, because women have cardiovascular disease risks and they’re often told it’s probably just anxiety.”

The charity said symptoms can differ from one person to another, adding that no heart attack symptoms are more common in women than in men. However, misconceptions about how heart attacks affect women may make them less likely to seek medical help or receive timely treatment.

It said these misunderstandings can delay diagnosis and increase the risk of poor outcomes. Coronary heart disease kills more than twice as many women as breast cancer in the UK each year, yet it is still widely regarded as a condition that mainly affects men.

• sudden and persisting pain or discomfort in the chest that feels like pressure, tightness, or squeezing
• the pain may spread to either arm, the neck, jaw, back, or stomach
• you may also feel sick, sweaty, light-headed or short of breath