Here’s Why Seeing a Female Doctor Might Just Save Your Life

You’ve heard that heart disease is striking American women in growing numbers—and that our symptoms are different than those in men. For instance, men experience heart attacks as you see them in the movies—intense chest pain—while women get milder precursors such as indigestion and pain in the jaw, arms and back.

But here’s a new twist: In the United States, females are less likely than males to survive heart attacks, even when their age is controlled for. These findings emerged as researchers studied almost 20 years’ worth of patients in Florida hospitals and recently published the results in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences. It seems one key variable that impacts whether a woman will survive or not is the gender of the doctor caring for the ailing female.