BANGALORE: Thirty-nine-old Susan Thomas thought she was in good health. Although she did not have much time for exercise, she ate carefully, picking on fresh foods and avoiding fried food.

So, when the executive of a multinational company learnt during an annual medical examination that she had significant percentage of blocks in her heart, she says she was shocked.

"It was the news that I least expected. I never thought that women were prone to heart attacks," she says.

Her echocardiogram had already shown changes and so on the advice of her doctor, Ms. Thomas is going in for an angioplasty. She says that she plans to start yoga or aerobic exercises once she has recovered from the procedure. "I need to learn ways to de-stress," says the executive, who works late nights and travels almost for 20 days in a month.

Ms. Thomas's case is no longer very unusual. Over the past few years, more and more young women are being diagnosed with cardio vascular diseases.

C.N. Manjunath, Director of the Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, says that while earlier doctors most often did not investigate chest pain in women before menopause because cardio vascular diseases were rare among them, the situation was now changing.

"We now treat chest pain complaints in women very seriously and run a full battery of tests to figure out what is wrong," he says. The changing trend has been brought about by the changing lifestyle, increasing prevalence of diabetes among women and more number of hysterectomies being performed.

There are over 35 million people with diabetes in India and by 2025, the World Health Organisation estimates the figure to go up to 73.5 million. More and more women now belong to this category.

A decision to have a hysterectomy in women in the mid-40s is also being noticed more commonly, says gynaecologist Ranjani of M.S. Ramaiah Memorial Hospital. She says a lot of women suffering from dysfunctional bleeding caused by fibroids undergo a hysterectomy operation.

Over the past decade, apart from younger women now suffering from cardio vascular diseases, cardiologists are also noticing some differences between men and women in heart diseases. Chief among them is the fact that heart attacks suffered by women are worse than their male counterparts.

"Women's blood vessels are smaller and so the blockages found in them most often are more severe," says Dr. Manjunath. They also tend to have blockages at multiple points because their supportive collateral system and body surface area is smaller than men's. Finally, women tend to have more complications than men post-surgery. "The complication rate for women is slightly higher although not alarming," he says.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail