Heart attacks in under-65s: Causes differ for men and women
A new Mayo Clinic study shows that heart attacks in people under 65 aren't just about blocked arteries, and the main causes differ for men and women.
Researchers looked at nearly 3,000 Minnesotans with heart muscle damage from 2003 to 2018, sorting cases into six types.
For men, blocked arteries caused most heart attacks
For men, blocked arteries (atherothrombosis) caused most heart attacks (75%), but for women it was less common (47%).
Women more often had heart attacks from things like supply/demand mismatch (34%) or spontaneous coronary artery dissection—SCAD—(11%), which mostly affects younger women and is often misdiagnosed.
Type of heart attack really affects survival
The type of heart attack really affects survival: five years on, deaths were highest after supply/demand mismatch (33%), much lower after classic blocked-artery cases (8%), and zero for SCAD.
Spotting the real cause early matters a lot—especially for younger women who might otherwise go undiagnosed or untreated.