Women do not expect to have heart attacks; as a result, they mistake heart attack symptoms for completely different conditions.

A team of researchers presented a study at the American Heart Association's 8th Scientific Forum on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke, showing that most women aged 55 and younger do not recognize a heart attack if they’re having one.

The authors noted that although women younger than 55 represent only 5% of all hospitalized heart disease patients, this is nevertheless a large portion in a large number of people suffering from heart attacks. There are 16,000 deaths each year among young women due to heart attacks, the authors said.

Judith Lichtman, assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven and her colleagues conducted a pilot study including 24 women aged 55 and younger.

These women had had heart attacks and were admitted to hospital. Lichtman and her colleagues questioned the participants about the symptoms they observed in themselves before the heart attack. The women were also asked if they understood they were at risk for heart disease.

Almost 90% of the questioned patients had experienced significant chest pain, a typical heart attack symptom. Only 4 in 10 thought there was something wrong with their hearts. They instead mistook the chest pain for indigestion or heartburn.

They also reported experiencing pain in the jaw or shoulder, sweating, nausea and/or shortness of breath. Not thinking the symptoms signaled something serious, only about a dozen of the participants went to an emergency room within the first hour of their symptoms.

Surprisingly enough, nearly 88 percent of the women had cases of heart disease within their families, in a parent or sibling. They nevertheless did not consider they were at risk.