Chest pain is often interpreted as the sign of an impending heart attack, but it is not necessarily true, especially for women. In women, chest pain may indicate the presence of several other medical conditions other than heart diseases. Women experiencing chest pain are usually examined for coronary heart diseases and tests are carried out, which often result in the negative. Therefore, in many instances, chest pain in women is quite difficult to diagnose, mainly due to the fact that chest pain is only related to the heart and so no further tests are carried out after confirming the absence of heart diseases. But research carried out in this regard has pointed out that in most cases, chest pain in women is caused by conditions not related to heart diseases.
Women and Heart Disease
Studies have shown that women before menopause are less likely to have heart diseases, as a high level of estrogen provides protection against heart diseases by preventing atherosclerosis or the narrowing of arteries. However, after menopause, as the level of estrogen decreases over time, they become equally likely to develop coronary heart diseases. However, this also does not mean that heart attacks are totally excluded. It only signifies that the risk of suffering from heart diseases is lower in women before menopause as compared to men. This also points to the fact that if a heart disease is not the cause of chest pain in women, then they should be diagnosed for the other conditions that can cause chest pain. Let’s have a look at some of the possible causes of chest pain in women, other than coronary heart diseases.
Causes of Chest Pain in Women
Women who complain of chest pain are initially diagnosed for coronary heart diseases with the help of a stress test. Usually, this test shows a positive result and points to a coronary heart disease, but successive tests like angiograms, cannot find anything of medical significance. However, recent researches have disclosed that this hard-to-diagnose chest pain in women can be a result of microvascular dysfunction and endothelial dysfunction. Microvascular dysfunction is a condition characterized by small blood vessels that either do not dilate or constrict abnormally, thereby impairing normal supply of blood to the heart and causing chest pain. Besides these, plaque accumulation inside the arteries can occur in such a manner, that they it is not easily recognizable by an angiogram. On the other hand, endothelial dysfunction refers to the condition where the cells that line the inner surface of the blood vessels do not function properly.
Some other conditions that are related to chest pain in young women include vulvular heart disease, mitral prolapse, rheumatic heart disease, mitral slenosis, angina etc. Pulmonary embolism, which is caused by blood clots in the major blood vessels that carry blood to the lungs, can produce chest pain. Pneumothorax, esophageal reflux and costochondritis can also be responsible for causing chest pain. It has been observed that chest pain in women can also arise from stress and anxiety.
Causes of Right Side Chest Pain in Women
Chest pain, especially pain in right chest area, can be caused by conditions that are not at all related to the heart. As for example, formation of gallstones, pneumonia and liver diseases like hepatitis, can cause right side chest pain in women. Gas problems are also related to right side chest pain in women, while a muscle twitch, either due to inappropriate posture or rapid breathing, can cause pain in both left and right side of the chest.
So women should not neglect chest pain even if a coronary heart disease is not detected. They should undergo further tests as recommended by their physicians for proper diagnosis of other conditions related to chest pain. As chest pain is an important indicator of heart diseases, therefore it also essential to control risk factors like smoking, excessive weight gain and the level of blood cholesterol, which can increase the risk of coronary heart diseases.