today on the transplant helper we attempt
to answer a viewers question is it
better receive a heart transplant from a
man or a woman the answers may surprise
you so stay tuned
well hey folks I appreciate you once
again joining me on the transplant helper
podcast slash youtube video series my
name is Jim Murrell and today we're
attempting to answer a viewers question
is it better to receive a heart
transplant from a man or from a woman
now Alan Grant submitted this to me via
my email address jim@thetransplanthelper.comand I'll admit when I first
saw the question I thought of myself no
there's no difference and it shouldn't
make any difference so that's basically
the answer but as I've done more
research on the subject whether it be
through Google search which is a
majority of my research came that way or
I had the opportunity to likewise to
speak to one of my cardiologists the
other day while I was at my transplant
center I've come to know there is a
difference a great difference between a
female and a male heart so if there's a
difference between those two hearts then
it may be illogical then that there may
be some differences post transplant so I
happen to be a man obviously and I
received a male's heart so I'm not
experiencing the same thing that Alan
grant has I think he told me he was
about 14 years post transplant and was
just wondering because he as a male has
a female heart so he was wondering if
there was going to be or should be any
recognizable differences between the two
but I was surprised to find out there
are differences between those hearts and
I want to go over them I've got them
listed here on the notepad so I'm going
to try to run through them pretty
quickly there are about 12 differences
that stand out from my research so I'm
going to share those with you number one
the female heart is about 60 grams
smaller in most cases and I note by that
that it's only an average there you know
some females are bigger or smaller than
others and of course the hearts usually
are sized accordingly but the female
heart is much smaller 60 grams smaller
not much but 60 grams smaller than the
average male heart now ask the question
would that matter post transplant well I
suppose it could however you know
as well as I do in the evaluation
process pre-transplant the doctors and
coordinators and everyone who does the
research works very very hard to make
sure that not only is your heart match
as far as blood and tissue typing but
also as far as size and so I would say
on the onset that doesn't matter because
your doctors have probably compensated
for that in the organ that they chose
for your body so Markoff number one off
your list even though the thing they
already cystogram is smaller it probably
makes no difference number two I learned
in my research that the veins of females
on average are smaller than that of a
man now when you think about that you
have to understand of course for the
smaller heart there would be smaller
veins and and they may not be a problem
typically speaking but understanding
that with smaller veins there may be a
slight difference in blood flow or at
least the volume of blood that can move
through those veins now again the
doctors have compensated for that so if
that makes a difference post transplant
I cannot really tell but they are about
1 millimeter thinner than that of a man
so smaller heart at 60 grams smaller and
then the veins being one millimeter
thinner I found that out number 3 I also
found out that typically women
experience more palpitations than men I
don't know if that's actually the case
or if maybe women are just more in tune
with their bodies or whatever but women
reportedly have more palpitations than
me and of course my palpitations I mean
accelerated and decelerated heart rates
to where they feel you know either one
side of the harder or course I don't
know it's you can tell feeling but they
noticed that their heart races more
often or they have skipped beats and
such as that and seemingly medically
that is sometimes the case does that
matter post transplant I don't know
because I don't know how the heart
reacts to the brains signals to beat or
how that really works so I'm going to
mark that one off the list as it really
doesn't matter either number four
however women have more sensitive veins
than men and what I mean by more
sensitive is it sometimes the woman's
veins as
found in research oftentimes do
something that they reported is
shriveling now I'm not saying the
patient recognizes that but the doctors
recognize that on echocardiograms and in
heart calves and such as that
it's not that the arteries or veins are
clogged necessarily they sometimes
shrink or shrivel again making it a
little bit more difficult for blood to
flow through more difficult if they're
having to cast that heart after the fact
trying to get through some areas again
does that really matter if you're a male
and you received a female heart don't
know that that one matters either number
five however the symptoms of disease do
not present as clearly in a female as
they do a male now this one's kind of
common we all recognize that for example
the symptoms and signs of a heart attack
for a male are generally pretty standard
that left arm pain that shooting pain
the intense pain like someone's standing
on your chest or maybe pains in your
back and up your neck and maybe even on
into your jaw males typically present
that way almost every time of course if
you're having a heart attack depending
on whether it's a big heart attack or a
massive heart attack or something that's
minor you'll present a little bit
differently also even as males but
females do not present in the same way
as a matter of fact one of my transplant
doctors that I've been with for many
many years now recently was put over the
head of a women's heart disease
treatment center of course a part of the
same hospital but nonetheless put over
her entire wing of things basically
because she understands that the women's
hearts often present differently when it
comes to disease or potential heart
attacks or whatever so she wanted to be
able to treat women kind of as a
separate entity than men because
oftentimes the treatments are different
so does that matter I would say that
matters if you're a post transplant
patient a male who has a female heart
inside of your body now and you
appreciate appreciate that donor heart
nonetheless but it may be the case that
if you were to have any problems a
little bit later than that not
necessarily hard
but angina and other things that come up
you may not present as well
symptomatically as the big diagnosed
just by looking at what's going on or
being diagnosed based upon your symptoms
that you speak about it may take a
little bit more testing to get in and
find out what's going on with you so
maybe number five matters just a little
bit the symptoms of male and females are
different when it comes to having
disease now number six in my research
this probably matters - and that is that
women's hearts are typically less
durable after heart attack now again you
know how much this really matters how
much statistics may be on or off but it
is a general rule of thumb as doctors
see it I confirm this one from one of
the cardiologists far as the fact that
it does occur but they oftentimes see
that women who have heart attacks do not
recover as well as men do I don't know
they said why that is I don't understand
the science and the technology behind
that but it's still a case women do not
recover as quickly or as easily or fully
from heart from heart attacks and other
problems of the heart as men do so maybe
that would matter post transplant if
you're a male received a female heart
and you had a problem it might matter to
you if you couldn't recover as well or
is completely number-7 the causes of
atypical complaints again like I said a
moment ago that women do not present the
same as far as heart attacks it's also
the same same case that women oftentimes
do not complain with chest pain they may
have heart problems they may have some
things that really need to be addressed
but if they're not experiencing pain in
the same way or for example shortness of
breath women are a little bit more
likely I think it was I remember right
to experience shortness of breath and
fatigue whereas they may not feel the
pain that goes along with that so again
the presentation might matter post
transplant if you're male receiving a
female heart maybe in this case your
complaints when they can be the same
that's kind of funny to think about but
yet
number eight female hearts typically
beat more times per minute than males
now the difference is not dressed to
give the average male heart beats 72 72
minutes times a minutes the female heart
beats about 78 to 82 times a minute so
it's just a little bit of a difference
there just a slight difference and I
don't think that that will really matter
now the heart
in a sense is an organ that we think
about mentally at least is saying well
if it beats so many times in your life
theoretically we might think as patients
you only have so many beats and so if
you're wasting those beats beating more
times per minute you know maybe you run
out quicker I don't think that's really
the case but nonetheless I would mark
off number 80 saying that really doesn't
matter you may feel it as palpitations
though if a man is used to a male heart
receiving a female heart he may feel
that and interpret that as palpitations
now number nine female hearts are more
sensitive to side effects from
medications than males now again I would
say in a way if that is true if that is
the case then we might notice a
difference post transplant if we're a
male who receives a female heart why
because transplant patients take a
tremendous amount of medications all the
immunosuppressants the antivirals
the steroids the vitamins that need to
be boosted post transplant
all those things typically affect women
different than they do men so if you
receive a heart from the opposite sex in
this case maybe that's going to matter
as far as your side effects and we know
is transplant patients if you're one of
them already basically a heart
transplant patients the side effect can
sometimes be rather aggravating and get
in your way a lot of times so you really
don't want to have any more so does that
matter
I would give number 9 kind of base
lightness or a slight matter in this
case number 10 women's hearts are more
likely to develop clots than men's and I
think this goes all the way back up
toward the top of this when we talked
about the veins being smaller and that
sort of thing
women's hearts because those smaller
veins and because of sometimes the even
smaller
mass of the heart or more likely to have
problems with clots and you can just
visualize that if the woman's pains are
one millimeter thinner than the men on
average then maybe if there's a problem
a clot coming through the body it might
oftentimes just slip right through or
not have the restriction to build up if
you're dealing with a male heart versus
a female so does this one matter I would
say number 10 just might matter we don't
want to have to deal with clots post
transplant any more than we did pre
transplant number 11 their veins however
this is good news their veins however
are more resilient they may be smaller
they may have more difficulties in
certain areas but they are more
resilient that's really good especially
when it comes post transplant in that on
average it seems that the veins on women
do not develop problems until as I found
out from one medical doctor one
cardiologist till about ten years later
than a man now I don't know how that
really bears out I don't know if they
see men having heart attacks at 40 and
women having heart attacks at 50 or
having clots at 40 versus 50 I don't
know but I was told there was about a
10-year difference in the way that their
veins seemed to be more resilient so hey
there's a plus to you there if you've
got that female heart number I think 12
finally maybe it's number 12 it's
difficult to determine what's going on
with tests and you know that there are
many tests that are done for example if
I go to the transplant clinic post
transplant I'm going to get x-rays I'm
going to get EKGs echocardiograms heart
cans biopsies all these things sometimes
it's maybe more difficult to make
determinations through the normal tests
that are done and by that I mean not the
extreme tests that I just name but just
taking a quick x-ray or an EKG
particularly an EKG comes into play that
may not show up as much information as
it would in a man again I don't
necessarily understand the science
behind that
so number 12 I would say again that one
might matter it may matter that it's
more difficult with general and
very I would say less invasive test to
find out about the woman's heart so what
have we done we've named 12 things I'm
not going to try to go back through them
it's hard enough for me to name them but
just back up you need to hear them again
nonetheless here's the conclusion I've
drawn if you're a male whoever's who has
received a female heart you're blessed
you're absolutely blessed you're blessed
because if you're a male who's received
a female heart you're blessed that you
had a transplant so in one way I would
say to anyone who would ask don't worry
about it
don't worry about it on the other side
of that is we named all several of these
things which can make survival a little
bit more difficult
survival certainly not impossible and
here's where the last thing lies and
this is where I'm going to stand on the
issue at least until I learn better when
asked the question just kind of
surveying with a few doctors yesterday
they didn't even know why I was asking
but when asked the questions and with
the nursing staff it was the same do you
see more women or men sitting on this
transplant floor sitting in these
cardiology floors being hospitalized
trying to recover from heart attacks or
trying to recover from other medical
problems concerning their heart
hands-down every one of them said this
it's always the man the men have more
problems overall than the female now we
stood there for a while me and one of
the doctors in this theorize it may be
because we as men don't take as good of
care guys good I can't say that we don't
take as much care with our bodies as
women do and so I would encourage anyone
pre or post transplant start caring for
your body start taking care of it start
exercising start eating better eating
right and trying to take care of your
body again I appreciate the question
Alan grant appreciates you submitting it
I don't know if I've given you any
answers but I do know there at least 12
differences between the female and the
male heart and some of those differences
may really matter but in the end of
things you're blessed to have a
transplant
therefore just accept the fact that hey
maybe it's the case now that you've got
a female heart you'll do better than the
men anyway because we as men we lay up
in the hospital a lot more often
according to what I've noticed and found
by experience than do females so again
appreciate your question and grant
anyone has a question for me I encourage
you to contact me at transplant
underscore help that's on Twitter at
transplant underscore help or if it's a
longer question you can't get in 140
characters then please email me Jim at
the transplant helper com that's Jim at
the transplant helper com I appreciate
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until next time friends stay stronger
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