Tips for health

Why a “woman” diagnosis can save lives

Many drugs have only been tested on men.

(Bild: Markus Wenzel)

For a long time, medicine has focused exclusively on the male body. In the case of pain, for example, women are more likely to take pills so that they can simply carry on. However, biological gender plays a role in many diseases, as an expert in gender medicine explains in the "Krone" newspaper.

A heart attack is a serious illness. That's why almost everyone is familiar with the typical symptoms, such as pain and tightness in the chest. However, if a woman suffers from this life-threatening disorder, it often manifests itself differently - through nausea, shortness of breath and upper abdominal or back pain. This is why female heart attack patients only arrive at the hospital after 3.5 hours on average, while men arrive after just three. This time advantage also appears to have an impact on the mortality rate for heart attacks, which increases fivefold in men from the age of 75, but ninefold in women.