ALLENTOWN, Pa. — In 2006, Patty Scheirer was pregnant with her first baby, a boy.
“It started off beautifully," Scheirer, of New Tripoli, said. "I loved being pregnant.”
But complications soon would change that perspective. And they eventually would lead to a life-threatening, and life-changing situation.
- A Lehigh Valley cardiologist is raising awareness about a heart disease risk factor of which many women aren't aware
- Problems during pregnancy, such as preeclampsia, put people at higher risk for heart issues
- Lifestyle changes can help prevent the development of heart disease
February is Heart Health month, and heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
Doctors with Lehigh Valley Health Network say many people don’t know that complications during pregnancy can increase the risk of developing heart problems.
'I'm sorry, I'm what?'
Scheirer said that during pregnancy, she had preeclampsia.
“My blood pressure was ridiculous,” Scheirer said.
“I was 33 1/2 weeks and they just basically said that my blood pressure was too high. It was impacting him and that they were going to give me some storage steroid shots and they were going to help them grow a little bit faster, but he was coming.”
Within hours, Scheirer said, she was holding her baby boy.
She thought that was the end of her preeclampsia problems, but fast forward 10 years, when, in her early 40s, she got what she described as chronic heartburn.
“I remember it was St. Patty's Day weekend and, you know, you're enjoying St. Patty's Day and you're eating meat and having bad life choices,” she said.
“So I just kept taking Tums and it wasn't going away. It wasn't going away.”
Scheirer said she couldn't believe what she heard next.
“I actually drove myself over to the emergency room over in Cedar Crest because I was like, ‘This is weird,’" she said.
"It was late at night. They took me right in and they're like, ‘Oh, so you're, you're having a heart attack.’ I'm like, ‘I'm sorry. I'm what?’“
A higher risk
Cardiologist Amy Ahnert, who works for LVHN’s Women’s Heart Program within the Lehigh Valley Heart and Vascular Institute, treated Scheirer after the heart attack.
“Here's Patty, she's a young woman, she's in her 40s," Ahnert said. "She comes in with a heart attack, and you'd look and you'd say, 'OK, well, what were her risk factors? Was she a diabetic? Was she a smoker? Did she have a family history?'"
"And she didn't have any of those, but she had preeclampsia and she also had borderline gestational diabetes."
Ahnert said that medicine has learned that women with preeclampsia can have twice the risk of developing heart disease and, in the next 10 to 15 years, a significant increase in the risk of high blood pressure.
Ahnert explained that many people don’t know the non-traditional risk factors for heart disease in women, such as adverse pregnancy outcomes.
“Things like high blood pressure and pregnancy; preeclampsia, which is a severe form of high blood pressure and pregnancy; high sugar and pregnancy, which is called gestational diabetes; small babies preterm babies, there are many outcomes that a woman can face during their pregnancy, that can increase their risk of heart disease," Ahnert said.
"Women who have autoimmune diseases, inflammatory conditions. Women who may have had breast cancer treatments, even depression and anxiety.”
Child also at risk
As more is known about the correlation between pregnancy complications and heart issues, more is being done to combat the problem.
LVHN has created a program specifically for women who have had preeclampsia.
Ahnert said it’s not just the mother who is at risk, but the baby as well.
Her colleague, Dr. Joanne Quinones, is vice chairwoman of Research for the Department of OBGYN.
"There is information to suggest that infants of mothers who have had preeclampsia, that there might be fetal programming and perhaps are at higher risk of developing complications during adult life and that's something that there's a lot of ongoing research taking place," Quinones said.
Quinones works in maternal-fetal medicine and has learned that pregnancy problems don’t go away after the baby is born.
"These are conditions that are not just related to the pregnancy; they happen in pregnancy, but they're almost like a window to future health,” she said.
Looking for feedback
At their Allentown office, Ahnert and Quinones have made it their mission to educate people about the No. 1 killer of women, heart disease, and how to prevent it.
“We know that if we're able to educate women, if we're able to empower women, if we're able to control their risk factors, if we're able to encourage them to live a heart-healthy lifestyle, we can prevent heart disease, it's not inevitable 80% of heart disease can be prevented,” Ahnert said.
She said women need to let their doctors know about their pregnancy history and those same doctors need to be asking, so a few extra steps can be taken to prevent future complications.
“It's a yearly visit that's really focused on bread and butter, heart health," she said.
"It's not necessarily a lot of fancy testing, fancy medications or fancy interventions. It's a lot of just how do we get you to be the healthiest that you can in terms of really [taking] control of the things that are in our control..."Amy Ahnert, an LVHN cardiologist
"It's not necessarily a lot of fancy testing, fancy medications or fancy interventions. It's a lot of just how do we get you to be the healthiest that you can in terms of really [taking] control of the things that are in our control: eating healthy, exercising, not smoking, watching our blood pressure, making sure we're checking our cholesterol on or other risk factors.”
Those lifestyle changes are what Scheirer said saved her life so she can continue to watch that tiny baby boy and his brother grow into young men.
“You never would have known that the oldest was a premature baby who came out four pounds, five ounces and he's a beast now," she said. "So we grow them big, apparently.”
In addition to knowing how to prevent heart disease, doctors say women should know the signs and symptoms of a heart attack because they are different from what men experience.
According to the CDC, they can include indigestion, shortness of breath, or pain in the upper abdomen or back, in addition to traditional heart attack symptoms.
