Heart disease is killing one Australian woman every hour, with experts warning the condition is still too often seen as a man’s problem.
During Women’s Health Week, a major push is now underway to overhaul how the deadly condition is recognised and treated in women.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: New push to overhaul how heart disease is treated in Australian women
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Olympic champion, mum of five and successful commentator Libby Trickett almost lost it all last year when she suffered a heart attack at just 40 years old.
“Never in a million years could I have ever imagined that I would have had a heart attack at the age of 40,” the mother of five and successful commentator said.
She was told it was an anxiety attack and was sent home.
“If my GP had known the signs of a heart attack in a woman, maybe I wouldn’t have been in the position where I went undiagnosed for eight months,” Trickett said.
Celebrity chef Mandy Hall faced the same problem.
“I was told repeatedly that I was suffering from anxiety,” Hall said.
Around half a million Australian women are living with a heart condition, with one dying every hour. Yet women are 50 per cent more likely to be misdiagnosed than men.
“Women also present quite differently. They may have fatigue, they may have breathlessness, they may just sort of have some pain in their jaw,” Dr Charlotte Hespe, a general practitioner, explained.
Clinicians and leading advocates met at Parliament House as pressure mounts for change. A special ministerial panel is now looking into cardiovascular disease and why women are diagnosed so late.
“Women are not just little men and the symptoms that we experience when it comes to our cardiovascular health needs to be considered,” Assistant Health Minister Rebecca White said.
The panel will report back later this year, with its recommendations expected to guide the next reforms in how heart disease in women is recognised and treated.
