I learned accidentally that drug trials for heart medication was done with young healthy males. My youngest son did drug trials at a hospital in California to supplement his income; the participants had to undergo a series of physical exams to qualify. Anyone with any heart defect could not quantify. One of the participants was sent home one night because his heart skipped a beat. I did my own research to learn that drug trials are predominantly done with males under 65.

I feel it is about time to remove the gender gap inequalities in healthcare. Many years ago, while working as a nurse, I had been assisting in moving a patient with several other people.. I experienced jaw pain that did not immediately go away. I called and spoke to the doctor on call for my pcp, she said I’m sure you just over exerted,go home and rest. When I relayed this to my pcp, he scheduled a stress test for me within a week. The cardiologist who did my stress test shook his head and commented “because you are a woman”. Fortunately that stress test was negative, however, many years later I did have a heart attack.

I did a little research after finding out that I had experienced a Silent Heart Attack…and now I make a bee line to the E/R at the first sign of any of the typical signs of a women’s heart attack! Any kind of chest pain accompanied by arm neck shoulder or headache pain with nausea present and jaw pain as well!

It is about time. I especially hate the racial inequity in our healthcare. Women of color, in particular, do not get the kind of care they deserve and it is about time we started to address this. I am glad to see some advocacy for this at long last. Women are more likely to die of a heart attack than men. Part of that in my opinion is that we are not educated in the way that women experience symptoms. We need more research on the effect of menopause on our hearts. Thanks, Cliff for posting this article it gives me hope.

@A MyHeartDiseaseTeam Member...Just speak up and advocate for yourself. Learn as much about your diagnosis as you can to ask intelligent questions and insist on answers. It has been my pet peeve for years that women are not heard...what!!!!😬...makes no sense to me! I complained for over forty years before I finally found my great cardiologist. He listened and took action. But I think I probably would have faired better if I had been "heard" years ago...just maybe my heart would not have gotten so bad if I'd had proper intervention!!

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