Women who suffer heart attacks are dying needlessly because they fail to recognise their symptoms and receive poorer care than men. says a British Heart Foundation report.
Over 10 years, between 2002 and 2013, more than 8,000 women in England and Wales died unnecessarily after a heart attack, it found.
In the 1960s, seven out of 10 hearts attacks in the UK proved fatal. Today, seven out of 10 people who have a heart attack will survive.
But women are missing out, says Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
"Heart attacks have never been more treatable.
"Yet women are dying needlessly because heart attacks are often seen as a man's disease, and women don't receive the same standard of treatment as men."
She said studies had "revealed inequalities at every stage of a woman's medical journey, and although complex to dissect, they suggest unconscious biases are limiting the survival chances of women".
The BHF report says that each year around 35,000 women are admitted to hospital following a heart attack in the UK each year - an average of 98 women a day, or four per hour.
In the UK, women are twice as likely to die from coronary heart disease as from breast cancer.
The report found that:
- women often delayed seeking help
- they were more likely to receive an incorrect diagnosis and substandard treatment compared to men
- risk factors, such as smoking and high blood pressure, increase heart attack chances more in women
- the quality of aftercare was also substandard
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