Heart attack symptoms in a man are now fairly well known. A man is likely to experience sudden, intense chest pain that can last for hours. He may also feel pain in the left arm or jaw and have difficulty breathing. These symptoms are obvious to an emergency room staff and immediate action is taken to bring a halt to the advance of heart damage.

While a women may have some of the same symptoms, in many cases her symptoms won't fit the traditional heart attack profile. Her pain may be more diffuse, spreading to the shoulders, neck, arms, abdomen and even her back. The pain my come and go or even feel more like a simple heaviness or burning sensation in the chest rather than the red-alert chest pain known to signal a heart attack.

More often than not, her primary symptoms may not be chest pain at all but an unexplained anxiety, nausea, dizziness, palpitations and cold sweat.

A women arriving at the hospital with these symptoms will often lose precious time while the medical staff test for other conditions or, worse yet, keep her sitting in the waiting room. Women also tend to have more severe first heart attacks and they more frequently lead to death, compared to men.