British women know little about their risk of heart disease, according to disturbing findings published this week.
Few women over 50 would suspect a heart attack if they started suffering symptoms, according to the British Heart Foundation.
And too many believe the "myth" that it is a problem for middle-aged men only, campaigners say.
Not many have ever discussed the issue with their doctor – even though heart disease is a bigger killer of women than breast cancer, the BHF said.
The findings come from a poll by YouGov of more than 4,000 people.
It found that 11 per cent of women would simply go to bed if they developed symptoms – such as shooting pains in the chest – and fewer than half said they would call 999. Some seven per cent said they would ignore the symptoms.
Just ten per cent of women over the age of 50 said they had ever discussed the risk of heart attack with their doctor.
The organisation has recruited top comedians to help with a special show this Sunday (5th) in London called the Angina Monologues.
Dr Mike Knapton, of the BHF, said the findings highlighted "serious gaps" in the female approach to health.
According to the BHF, the disease kills three times as many women as breast cancer and more than a million British women live with heart disease.
He said: "These results show serious gaps in the way women are thinking about their heart health. They highlight the common myth that heart disease is a middle-aged male health problem which simply doesn’t affect women in the same way.
"It’s vital that us GPs ‘think heart’ for our female patients. All women over 40 are entitled to a free health check which takes just a few minutes. The truth is too many lives are lost each year to a killer which is largely preventable.
"We need to help women look after their hearts now and protect their health in the future."
Jill Wakeford, aged 52, from Chichester, Sussex, backed the campaign.
She told how she ignored symptoms.
She said: "Instead of going to the gym one morning I decided to move some logs in my garage. The next day I felt a shooting pain across my chest which I thought was a normal muscle strain.
"Despite this I carried on and went to work. That evening I could hardly sleep and the pain continued for another two days, I decided to check my symptoms online and that’s when I dialled 999.
“I was shocked to learn that I had suffered a heart attack."
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