Make The Call: Don't Miss A Beat

Click on the list below to learn more about each

1. Chest pain or discomfort

   

   "I felt like there was a thousand-pound weight on my chest..."

   Most heart attacks involve uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain in the center or left side of the chest.

2. Unusual upper body discomfort

   

   "All of a sudden, there was this sharp pain in my neck and jaw..."

   Women are more likely than men to experience sharp pain in the upper body as a symptom of a heart attack.

3. Shortness of breath

   

   "No matter what I did, I couldn't catch my breath..."

   Unexplained shortness of breath is one of the leading signs of a heart attack.

4. Breaking out in a cold sweat

   

   "I kept breaking into cold sweats, and I knew it wasn't menopause..."

   Cold sweats or unexplained and excessive sweating can be a sign of a heart attack.

5. Unusual or unexplained fatigue (tiredness)

   

   "I hadn't been exercising, but I felt like I'd just run a marathon..."

   More than half of women having a heart attack experience unexplained or unusual tiredness and muscle fatigue not related to exercise.

6. Light-headedness or sudden dizziness

   

   "I felt dizzy and light-headed, like I stood up too fast..."

   Unlike in the movies, most heart attacks do not make you pass out right away. Instead, you may suddenly feel dizzy or light-headed.

7. Nausea (feeling sick to the stomach)

   

   "I couldn't shake this feeling of intense nausea..."

   Women are twice as likely as men to experience nausea or vomiting as a sign of a heart attack.

The Make the Call. Don't Miss a Beat. campaign is a national public education campaign that aims to educate, engage, and empower women and their families to learn the seven most common symptoms of a heart attack and encourage them to call 9-1-1 as soon as those symptoms arise.

A woman suffers a heart attack every 90 seconds in the United States. Yet according to a 2009 American Heart Association survey only half of women indicated they would call 9-1-1 if they thought they were having a heart attack and few were aware of the most common heart attack symptoms.

The campaign, developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health, encourages woman to make the call to 9-1-1 immediately if they experience one or more of the heart attack symptoms listed above.