Is “menopause heart” a heart condition?

  ”Some women often have paroxysmal pain in the precordial region after menstrual disorders or cessation of menstruation, accompanied by chest tightness, breath-holding, panic attacks, etc. They are very nervous and think that they have a coronary heart attack. After being brought to the hospital, the ECG was generally normal or had ST-segment changes, and the symptoms disappeared soon after the infusion of fluids and oxygen therapy. These patients have recurrent episodes of cardiac discomfort, accompanied by chest tightness, breathlessness and rapid heartbeat, and often need to take a big breath to feel more comfortable. In acute attacks, palpitations are very obvious. Palpitations, also known as panic attacks, are sudden bursts of heavy and fast heartbeat in the chest area. Some women describe their heart as if it is “about to jump out of their throat” or as if they have “done something wrong”. They need to go to the hospital for emergency treatment. Some patients are even hospitalized for coronary angiograms, which do not reveal any real coronary artery disease. This is why some experts call this type of heart discomfort “menopausal heart” or “pseudo-angina” during menopause. What is the difference between “menopausal heart” and “coronary angina”?  The symptoms of “pseudo-angina” in menopausal syndrome, such as palpitations, chest tightness, precordial pain and increased blood pressure, are caused by the decline of ovarian function, the decrease of estrogen hormone level in the body, and the dysfunction of vasomotor nerves due to the disturbance of plant nerve function; while coronary angina is caused by the temporary ischemia and hypoxia of the myocardium due to insufficient blood supply to the coronary arteries. The difference between the two is as follows. The typical onset of angina pectoris is a sudden onset of crushing or suffocating pain, located at the back of the sternum, radiating to the left shoulder, the left upper limb medial side, up to the ring finger and little finger, often forcing the patient to immediately stop activities, the pain lasts 3-5 minutes, and disappears within 1-2 minutes after resting or containing nitroglycerin. In angina pectoris, the electrocardiogram may show characteristic changes; in menopausal syndrome, the pain in the precordial region is limited and superficial, sometimes the location of the pain is not fixed, with pinprick-like pain or continuous vague pain, lasting 1-2 seconds or several hours or days, or even weeks of continuous pain, and cannot be relieved by oral nitroglycerin, or the relief is not obvious.  Angina pectoris often occurs during physical exertion, emotional excitement, cold, satiety, and smoking; and the onset of “menopausal heart” symptoms is often related to emotion and spirit. The patient’s subjective discomfort symptoms are more, and serious, often repeatedly to the doctor, the ideological pressure is very high, but the physical examination ECG normal or st segment changes, palpitations, heartbeat pulse is not fast, so in the menopause of female friends, must have a good state of mind, mental not too nervous, when the symptoms are serious in the doctor’s knowledge to carry out the necessary treatment, the symptoms back to quickly improve.