Finally a diagnosis

[iggytiggy]

Hello All,

I have just been given a diagnosis of Microvascular Ischaemia and Angina, after two years of fighting for a diagnosis. I was advised to seek a second opinion, and I did just that, going to Papworth in Cambridge, who have finally delivered on a diagnosis. I do feel that women have a difficult time trying to get help with cardiac conditions, mainly because we sometimes experience heart symptoms in a different way to men. Can I just encourage any woman who has been told there doesn't seem to be much wrong, to seek a further opinion and not give up!

[JonathanH]

I agree fully, as data show that women patients do better under women cardiologists, whereas there is no difference between male and female cardiologists when it comes to male patients.

....but, it took male me 10 years to obtain a diagnosis of microvascular angina and in the first instance I had to make the diagnosis myself. So hang on in there everybody!

[jerry12953 in reply to JonathanH]

Me too.

I had all the tests in the world and all came back negative. I discovered microvascular angina purely by chance when applying for travel insurance, mentioned it to my GP (twice) and I think he then passed it on to the cardiologist. I'm not sure she had heard of it until then!

I read more than once that something like 30%+ of angina sufferers show no blockages in the main arteries. It seems bizarre that with that many people with the condition more of those in the medical profession don't seem to have heard of MVA.....

[iggytiggy]

Well said Jonathan!

[Milkfairy Heart Star]

Hi iggytiggy

Glad to hear you have been able to access the care you need.

There is a growing awareness that there is an unconscious and sometimes conscious bias in the Cardiology world regarding women and heart disease.

This is an issue that we will no doubt see raised by the BHF in the near future .

I also feel that men with Microvascular angina can often be even more overlooked if MVA is just seen as a woman's condition.

Vasospastic angina effects men and women equally.

90% of people with MVA are women.

[bee2 in reply to Milkfairy]

It could be the 90% figure be mainly woman because as you say men are overlooked