Millions of women could be living with undiagnosed heart failure

A recent report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women’s Health state that women are unnecessarily dying from strokes and heart attacks as the conditions are seen as ‘male diseases’. It also appears that the same applies to women with heart failure.

Female patients account for 40 per cent of the 900,000 people diagnosed with heart failure.

However, a recent study by researchers from the University of Oxford and published in PLoS Medicine, found that doctors were much more likely to miss the signs of heart failure in women, with female patients nine per cent less likely to be correctly diagnosed by GPs than men. This meant that as a result, women were more likely to be diagnosed at hospital when their symptoms had become much more severe.

Amanda Varnava, consultant cardiologist at Hammersmith Hospital, London, said “Doctors are not as alert to the signs and symptoms in women as they are in men. If women feel fatigued, doctors may put it down to age or weight, whereas in men they might be more likely to consider “is this heart-related?”

“It is better that heart failure patients are diagnosed by a GP than at hospital – leaving it later means it is more costly to the NHS and women are missing out on treatments that can manage their symptoms and improve their quality of life.”

The most common cause of heart failure in men is having a heart attack or heart disease. In women, the main cause is uncontrolled high blood pressure, as over time this puts a strain on the heart.

Dr Varnava went on to say “There needs to be a greater awareness among GPs about the risk factors for heart failure so that if they see an older female patient with long-standing high blood pressure they know that she is at risk of heart failure.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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