Thank you possum for your response to my post. I'm sorry that your doctors ignored you as well and that you were yelled at by your cardiologist.

I agree that the E.R. doctor was unkind to me. In fact, he even mocked me, when he said, "well, at least you know you can work a 14 hour shift now without dying." If I hadn't had an IV in my arm, I would have slapped him across the face for being so inappropriate.

What IS IT with men who treat women like they don't matter. Because that is how he made me feel.

Women can have mild heart attacks aka "silent heart attacks," or mild strokes. If I didn't have a heart murmur and family history of heart disease, I would have tried to wait out my symptoms.

I did email my primary care physician and explained to him my concerns of being mislabeled as an anxious patient because of my gender, etc. and he assured me that he would take my health concerns seriously and refer me to a cardiologist for more testing after he sees me at my appointment with him. I hope he keeps his word.

I've never had a positive male role model in my life, so I think that when men belittle me or shame me, like this E.R. doctor did, it triggers me. My overall feeling is that men just don't respect women -- esp. when women are intelligent, strong-willed, and won't accept being mistreated.