The Crisis of Misdiagnosis in Women's Heart Disease

This virtual Hill briefing for an audience of policymakers and others, included a discussion about what's behind missed and delayed diagnosis of heart disease in women and how to work toward life-saving solutions. Co-hosted by WomenHeart and the Women's Heart Alliance, the speakers included WomenHeart CEO Celina Gorre, Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz of Women's Heart Alliance and Cedars-Sinai, Executive Director of PCORI Dr. Nakela Cook, and WomenHeart Champion Charity Watkins.

[burlingtonpark]

25 minutes in...WOW...Charity, sharing your story will no doubt save many lives., of all ethnicities and ages
.keep telling it in as many forums as you can.Thank you very much.

[lvnv]

Thank you for bringing awareness and helping us! Two hospitals and countless doctors send me away while I was having a heart attack. They did do the heart catheterization but my arteries were "perfect" despite my ECG being off (ischemic) and my troponines were raised. It took them 4 years and 3 (bigger ones, I've had countless smaller) heart infarctions before they caught it in a routine blood test. I was only 36 and they were Minoca heart infarctions, caused by either spasms or blood clots.

In the hospital I was surrounded by older men, some of them had merely fainted and were brought in to stay overnight and get testing and most important: treatment. I had fainted almost daily for years. I was left to fight for my life on my own (and send to psychotherapy because I was so anxious to go to sleep because I feared I wasn't going to wake up, because you know, I could feel I was dying) and now suddenly everyone takes me seriously? No thanks. I'm done with doctors. I will only go in if I absolutely have to but I will never trust them again. And it's not the first time they misdiagnosed me either. Are the lives of young mothers less important than the lives of old men? Yes. Yes they are. In the eyes of the patriarchy anyway. I barely survived and struggle daily with getting out of bed. But I'm a mom, I don't get to be unwell. 🔥 The patriarchy and start taking women seriously! Our lives and our children's lives depend on it.