A Couple Women’s Health Learnings
I recently learned two things about women’s health, which I should have known, but didn’t. I had never heard either of these, so I just wanted to share.
Heart Attacks
I was recently listening to a podcast and they were discussing how women are often not taken seriously or believed when raising health issues, or at least are believed less than men. It was then brought up that women have different heart attack signs/symptoms than men. What? I never knew that. If you had asked me I would have said the common chest pain, heartburn, pain in the left arm etc. Well it turns out that the symptoms I am familiar with are more specific to men. Women have different heart attack symptoms which include those listed below. And while these aren’t all that different from men’s symptoms, there are some differences and women should be aware of the symptoms that women experience,especially because it seems that young women often don’t even realize when they are having a heart attack.
A heart attack doesn't necessarily feel like a sudden painful episode that ends in collapse, she notes. And women are more likely than men to experience vague symptoms like nausea or pain down their arms.
"Women may experience a combination of things they don't always associate with a heart attack," Lichtman says. "Maybe we need to do a better job of explaining and describing to the public what a heart attack looks and feels like."
Neck, jaw, shoulder, upper back or abdominal discomfort
Shortness of breath
Pain in one or both arms
Nausea or vomiting
Sweating
Lightheadedness or dizziness
Unusual fatigue
Perimenopause
I had never heard of perimenopause until the women doing my tattoo mentioned it while she was working on my arm. We didn’t actually talk about it, so I looked it up when I got home.
Many women in my life are experiencing perimenopause or will be in the next few years, so I just wanted to share in case there are others that are not familiar with it.
Perimenopause means "around menopause" and refers to the time during which your body makes the natural transition to menopause, marking the end of the reproductive years.
Symptoms
Irregular periods. As ovulation becomes more unpredictable, the length of time between periods may be longer or shorter, your flow may be light to heavy, and you may skip some periods. If you have a persistent change of seven days or more in the length of your menstrual cycle, you may be in early perimenopause. If you have a space of 60 days or more between periods, you're likely in late perimenopause.
Hot flashes and sleep problems. Hot flashes are common during perimenopause. The intensity, length and frequency vary. Sleep problems are often due to hot flashes or night sweats, but sometimes sleep becomes unpredictable even without them.
Mood changes. Mood swings, irritability or increased risk of depression may happen during perimenopause. The cause of these symptoms may be sleep disruption associated with hot flashes. Mood changes may also be caused by factors not related to the hormonal changes of perimenopause.
Vaginal and bladder problems. When estrogen levels diminish, your vaginal tissues may lose lubrication and elasticity, making intercourse painful. Low estrogen may also leave you more vulnerable to urinary or vaginal infections. Loss of tissue tone may contribute to urinary incontinence.
Decreasing fertility. As ovulation becomes irregular, your ability to conceive decreases. However, as long as you're having periods, pregnancy is still possible. If you wish to avoid pregnancy, use birth control until you've had no periods for 12 months.
Changes in sexual function. During perimenopause, sexual arousal and desire may change. But if you had satisfactory sexual intimacy before menopause, this will likely continue through perimenopause and beyond.
Loss of bone. With declining estrogen levels, you start to lose bone more quickly than you replace it, increasing your risk of osteoporosis — a disease that causes fragile bones.
Changing cholesterol levels. Declining estrogen levels may lead to unfavorable changes in your blood cholesterol levels, including an increase in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol — the "bad" cholesterol — which contributes to an increased risk of heart disease. At the same time, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol — the "good" cholesterol — decreases in many women as they age, which also increases the risk of heart disease.
