Page 53 - Prevention - USA (April 2020)

SO WHAT CAN WE
DO ABOUT THIS?

Understanding that the problem exists
in the first place is a good start, says
Dr. Graber, and can inspire you to be
proactive when interacting with your
clinical team. If you think you’re get-
ting the brush-off or that your doctor
isn’t taking your concerns seriously,
ask your provider a simple question:
“What else could this be?” Dr. Graber
says, “This is the universal antidote for
diagnostic errors. Ideally, it will shake
your doctor out of his intuitive mode
of thinking and prompt him to really
consider other options.”
Dr. Jenkins agrees, suggesting that
you ask even more questions if you
feel your doctor may be missing some-
thing. “It’s OK to ask things like ‘Is
this the best drug for me?’ and ‘Is there fatigue, nausea, and back, neck, and
enough data to show it’ll work as well jaw pain.” Add to this the fact that
in women as it does in men?’ ” she says. the standard testing physicians still use
To help you advocate for yourself, to detect heart disease was devised for,
we talked to doctors and researchers and tested on, men’s hearts, so it isn’t
about the conditions that are most likely as good at discerning heart disease
to be misdiagnosed in women. in women, who have smaller blood
vessels around the heart.
Part of the reason women If you do experience chest pain or
like Nicole are misdiag- other symptoms mentioned above, see
HEART
nosed is that females don’t your doctor or go to an emergency room.
DAN SAELINGER/TRUNK ARCHIVE. Rekha Mankad, M.D., a cardiologist and heart attack, very early in the evaluation.
have textbook heart disease
You’ll get an electrocardiogram (EKG),
DISEASE
and heart attack symptoms
the gold-standard diagnostic test for
as often as men do, says
Even if you don’t have chest pain, ask
the director of Mayo Clinic’s Women’s
for an EKG and blood tests to look
for a heart attack, particularly if you
Heart Clinic. “While chest pain is still a
have risk factors for heart disease, says
primary symptom, we usually see other,
Dr. Mankad. “If something’s not right
vaguer symptoms—like generalized
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