TRANSCRIPT:
When Sharyn French recently fell ill, she didn't know what her symptoms meant.
"I felt dizzy, nausea, tingling up my arm, pain in my jaw, a heaviness in my chest."
The 51 year old mother of three was ultimately diagnosed with Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection, or SCAD, a heart condition that affects primarily women - and often occurs in fit and healthy people.
Her inlaws ultimately called an ambulance, because Sharyn French didn't realise how serious the situation was.
"I'd never felt those symptoms before and I thought, oh, I'll just go and have a shower. I'll be right. So I go down the longest corridor ever. It was about 20 metres, got down the other end, and everyone had gone for coffee except my parents-in-law, and I literally fell on the floor and couldn't get up."
Heart disease is a leading cause of death for both women and men.
But a survey of 34,000 people just published in the British Medical Journal has found that about a third of people would not dial Triple-0 if they were experiencing signs.
It has found that women may not even realise they are having a heart attack as symptoms can differ to men.
Dr Linda Worrall-Carter is Director of the Her Heart organisation, and says that there is a lack of information about what it means for women to have a heart attack.
"Traditionally, we have seen a lot of media attention around men, and the research shows that women have very different symptoms to men. So there's a significant lack of awareness both in the community, in women in general, but also in health professionals."
Films and TV shows usually portray male symptoms, with someone suffering chest pain being the most common scene of a tachycardia on screen.
Dr Worrall-Carter says that chest pain is actually not experienced by the majority of women.
"Up to 60 per cent of women actually wont get chest pain, and I think this is something people tend to think they will always going to get. We know women will complain of pain up to the jaw, going back through to their shoulder blades, they might feel short of breath, dizziness, have nausea, and just feel incredibly fatigued."
A separate study by Monash University has found women are more likely to hesitate asking for help for a suspected heart attack.
35 per cent of respondents said they didn't want to be a burden on emergency services - compared to 27 per cent of men.
Paramedic and Monash Associate Professor Kathryn Eastwood says most women in the study preferred to contact their own GP.
"They wanted to be sure that it was actually a heart attack that they were experiencing. And for women in particular, they actually thought they were at low risk of their symptoms being a heart attack."
But being a woman is not the only reason why people don't pick up the phone.
Professor Eastwood says the Monash University study identified barriers to health care for people who don't have English as their first language.
"We found that people that were born overseas or that preferred a language other than English at home were less likely to actually be transported by ambulance. This is concerning, but it does offer us an opportunity to provide education to specific people about when to call us and that it's okay to call us."
Professor Eastwood says the message for everybody is simple.
"Call us first, decide later. Don't worry about inconveniencing us,that's what we're there for. Don't hesitate."
Sharyn French says she couldn't agree more.
"I thought I had a virus, I thought I needed to lay down. And going away from everyone was a mistake and I learned that once I collapsed on the floor and couldn't really move."
But she says she is grateful for receiving medical attention in time - and getting a second chance.
"I'm grateful. I feel grateful for life, I feel things are a privilege."
