08 Apr 2005
Heart disease alert for women (Source: Straits Times)

 

BREAST cancer hogs the headlines when it comes to publicity. Yet heart disease is far more deadly, killing almost as many women here as it does men, Ministry of Health figures show.

What's worse, three times more men than women seek corrective treatment for the condition.

While doctors do not know why this is the case, they do know it needs to change.

Roughly one in four men and women dies of heart-related disease here, a condition often thought of as a 'male' problem. In contrast, breast cancer, which attracts far more attention, kills one in 20 women.

In 2002 - the latest data available so far - heart disease accounted for 24.4 per cent of all deaths in men and 23.9 per cent in women.

Yet that same year, only 634 women went for heart bypass surgery or angioplasty at the National Heart Centre (NHC), compared with 2,029 men.

This trend has continued in the past two years.

Although no studies have been done to find out exactly why fewer women seek treatment, NHC cardiologist Ding Zee Pin said it could be because heart disease usually shows up in older women, who may not be willing to undergo procedures such as bypass operations.

'Heart disease is also more difficult to detect in women, as many do not have the typical symptoms of crushing chest pain,' said Dr Ding. Instead, some may experience symptoms similar to gastric pain or breathlessness.

The treatment figures, she added, reinforced the stereotype that heart problems affect more men.

That perception needs to change.

Cardiologists here are now echoing warnings being sounded in Europe and the United States over female heart disease.

While it is true that younger women have a lower risk of heart disease than men, those odds even out after menopause.

Chairman of the Singapore Heart Foundation, cardiologist Low Lip Ping, told The Straits Times: 'More younger men get heart disease, but once you are in your 60s, the rates tend to become the same.

'Also, women are less likely to survive heart attacks than men, which is why they should be doubly careful.'

That is one of the key areas that SingHealth, which manages the National Heart Centre, plans to focus on in an upcoming health forum targeted at older women. Called Fabulous From 40, it will be held tomorrow at the Stamford Ballroom at the Raffles City Convention Centre.

Doctors believe that female hormones, particularly oestrogen, protect younger women from heart disease. However, as women age and their oestrogen levels fall, they lose this 'hormonal advantage'.

Statistics bear this out as well. SingHealth said that for women aged 56 and above, heart-related problems were the top cause of hospitalisation in 2002 to 2003.

In comparison, heart problems were only the 17th highest cause of hospitalisation among women between 25 and 40.

Part of the difficulty is in detecting the problem. When Madam Florence Choo felt queasy on a hot sunny afternoon last month, she thought she was getting gastric pains and popped some painkillers.

When her condition worsened, she was rushed to the Singapore General Hospital, where doctors told her she had suffered a heart attack.

'I did not for a moment think I could be having a heart attack,' said the 48-year-old mother of two. 'I just thought it was a stomach ache from the fried rice I ate.'

New 'vital statistics' for women

DR DAPHNE Khoo, head and senior consultant of the endocrinology department of the Singapore General Hospital and the president of the Association of Women Doctors, has drawn up a list of new health targets for women over 40 to work towards.