Comment

Comment by RockRpsgt on May 11, 2009 at 5:45pm

Lack of education has been a plague on our society for to long. Too many of our medical practitioners believe apnea to be a problem of size and weight. I guess I should not put all the blame on the docs. The public has these same misconceptions.

Comment by Belinda Haman on May 11, 2009 at 3:53pm

I totally agree with alot of these misconceptions for women with Sleep apnea......I went through quite an ordeal myself to get a sleep test done....my doc thought because I was not overweight there was no way I could hav OSA.....even though I told her my mother suffered from severe sleep apnea.....still would not send me for a test.....instead I was diagnosed with depression and meds and continued to visit my doc with the same complaints of not sleeping and awakening gasping for air.....then she said I was having panic attacks.....after several months of arguing back and forth.....she finally agreed to send me for a sleep test and sure enough was diagnosed with sleep apena.....she was surprised I had OSA because I didn't have any of the classic symptoms that men have.....well me response was "of course not I am a woman" I couldn't resist.....since this I have been educating my doc on this disease.....

Comment by Ruth Rayceen on March 30, 2009 at 9:47am

Mike, I read Dr Ponceta's article re: woman's Apnea symptoms can be different then men, and your statement
"Women definitely get a raw deal by the convential wisdom the OSA is a male disease -- as it stands, even men are vastly underdiagnosed. When it comes to women and children, the statistics must be staggering."
I'll take a brief stand on the sopa box on this. Female hearts, heart attacks, & subsequent heart surgery are not the same as Males. Concerning women's knee surgery, I would like to rant on this. Until recently, when a woman, short or tall, heavy or a lightweight.had knee replacement surgery - what kind of a knee was implanted in her smaller leg. A Male size knee.
I did not have male classic symptoms of OSA. My Eepworth scale was answered in the negative. I suffered from insomnia, I did not fall asleep at stop lights, or at lunch. I was not heavy. According to my husband (who sleeps like a rock) I had occasional episods of snoring.. Yet, an astitute Internist ordered a sleep study in 3-3-00, whch revealed severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome. with 99 apneas and hypopneas per hours of sleep..

Women may have different symptoms of OSA, so doctors can't be help responsible in the past for not recognizing unusual symptoms - but the medical profession has generally regarded women as an afterthought. I hope it continues to improve, and women get equal diagnosis and treatment..

Comment by Mike on March 30, 2009 at 1:02am

women definitely get a raw deal by the conventional wisdom that OSA is a male disease -- as it stands, even men are vastly underdiagnosed. when it comes to women and children, the statistics must be staggering. ResMed has noticed that a growing percentage of its market is women -- they've recently launched the first cpap face mask designed especially for women, the Swift LT for Her. That said, i think ResMed stands alone in noticing women. Physicians, the media and everyone else who talks about sleep apnea is kind of oblivious to the # of women who should be treated for Sleep Apnea.